HARARE City Council (HCC) has courted public anger after proposing to facilitate loans for its doctors to purchase top-of-the-range vehicles, even as service delivery in the city’s clinics and hospitals continues to falter.
The move has sparked controversy as it comes amid a crippling shortage of doctors and an overstretched health system, leaving residents frustrated with inadequate care at primary and quaternary health facilities.
Ratepayers question why funds should be used for luxury vehicles while basic services are deteriorating.
The Harare Master Plan, spearheaded by local consultancy Development Studio Africa and adopted last year, highlighted that primary healthcare facilities are under-utilised, with patients bypassing them and overwhelming quaternary health institutions such as Parirenyatwa and Sally Mugabe.
The plan points to declining service quality and a poorly structured healthcare system.
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume defended the move to facilitate the acquisition of vehicles, saying the municipality faces a massive shortage of doctors.
The shortage, Mafume added, has left Harare with seven doctors.
The doctors have already met council’s acting finance director, Godfrey Kusangaya, on the modalities of assessing the vehicles.
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Kusangaya confirmed the meeting.
Mafume, however, indicated that council will not be acquiring the vehicles for the doctors, but will facilitate a loan scheme for them.
“Our doctors should be able to move from one point to another, including for emergencies,” he said.
“We have facilitated loans for them to buy vehicles.”
Mafume said council health workers were overstretched because of a massive brain drain.
“We have 14 polyclinics and we are delivering 3 000 babies per month, which is staggering,” he said.
“We have 100 000 patients per month; our main worry is that we are nowhere near where we want to be, as we want more doctors, but we are going to fight to have more doctors.
“Our doctors and their supporting staff are doing a wonderful job. I have visited several clinics and seen that with the few resources (they have), they are doing well.”
Meanwhile, public criticism has been swift.
Harare Residents Trust executive director Precious Shumba yesterday criticised the local authority saying it has found another way of looting funds.
“The City of Harare should be transparent in its procurement. The Harare Residents Trust has come to realise that corruption thrives in procurement, where proxies of key decision-makers secure contracts to supply goods and services at inflated prices. A closer examination of the vehicle costs will reveal this trend,” he said.
Shumba also argued that the conditions of employment for workers at Harare City Council should be addressed in a comprehensive approach that looks at all 16 grades without attempting to make some more special than others.
“This discriminatory approach is driven more by the desire of the mayor and his colleagues to make the council directors desperate and approach them pleading on behalf of their team members.
“This creates the misleading impression that the mayor is reasonable and wants to address a brain drain problem when, in reality, they are directly responsible for compromising council’s equal treatment of workers.
“The workplace should not be abused by power-seeking officials who exploit every available opportunity to present themselves as benefactors of the doctors.”
He said ratepayers’ funds should not be used for political expediency, but utilised in a transparent and accountable manner.
“These ad hoc payouts and purchases of vehicles are unbudgeted for. This means the procurement is driven by corruption, incompetence and lack of planning,” Shumba said.
“A serious investment in the welfare of the doctors should be easily linked to strategic planning and resource allocation, reflected in the 2026 council budget.
“The City of Harare has lately been playing catch-up on monthly salaries and allowances, at one point falling three months behind, causing untold suffering among council workers.”
