THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC)'s tour of Matapi flats in Mbare has exposed a humanitarian crisis that authorities have long normalised or ignored. 

What the commission encountered was not routine urban decay but a systemic failure of governance. Families are squeezed in single rooms built decades ago for lone migrant workers. In some cases, as many as 13 people share one room. 

Matapi flats were designed to house about 3 000 people. Today, an estimated 12 800 residents live there, more than four times the intended capacity. The result is a dangerous pressure cooker, vulnerable to disease outbreaks, fires and possible structural collapse. This is an accident waiting to happen. 

Raw sewage flows through sections of the flats, contaminating spaces where residents cook and children play. Uncollected rubbish piles up, walls are cracked and crumbling, roofs leak, drainage pipes are blocked, electricity supply is erratic and water shortages are constant.  

ZHRC chairperson Jessie Majome captured the horror bluntly, saying “standing there is not for people of nervous disposition,” adding that no technology could fully capture the stench. 

Keep Reading

These conditions constitute a public health emergency. Cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases are ever-present threats. The most vulnerable — children, the elderly and people with disabilities — carry the heaviest burden. 

Residents say they have complained for years, pleading with the City of Harare to intervene. Their appeals have largely gone unanswered. City authorities, in turn, blame residents for failing to pay rates, arguing this has left the council without resources to maintain the hostels. 

This defence rings hollow. It ignores the entrenched poverty and unemployment that define life in Mbare and it sidesteps the State’s constitutional obligation to progressively provide basic services. Rates collection cannot be used as an excuse for neglecting human dignity. 

As expected, ZHRC will retreat to its offices, compile a report, and make recommendations. 

Experience suggests the document will struggle to translate to action.  

Zimbabwe is not short of reports diagnosing urban decay. It is political will that is in short supply. 

Mbare has become a political training ground — where aspiring leaders rehearse the art of deception, promising residents salvation while delivering nothing. 

The most recent illusion was sold nearly eight years ago by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, who promised modern apartments complete with swimming pools — an El Dorado that never materialised. 

That pledge was made during a brief period of optimism following the end of Robert Mugabe’s rule, when President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration was enjoying goodwill at home and abroad. 

Before that, Mugabe himself dismissed Mbare residents as “totemless” for supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, revealing the ruling elite’s disdain for citizens who exercised political choice. 

That contempt appears to have survived leadership change. 

This disregard is not new. In 2011, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project to renovate Matapi flats collapsed due to political interference, with Zanu PF-aligned activists demanding shareholding in a humanitarian initiative. That was during the Government of National Unity, when co-operation should have been possible. Partisan greed prevailed, nonetheless. 

ZHRC has correctly classified the conditions at Matapi flats as a violation of human rights, particularly the right to human dignity. Section 51 of the Constitution is clear: “Every person has inherent dignity in their private and public life and the right to have that dignity respected and protected.” This is binding law, not aspirational rhetoric. 

Closely linked are the rights to adequate housing, clean water and sanitation. These are not privileges for the affluent; they are constitutional entitlements. 

Majome’s warning must, therefore, jolt city authorities and central government into urgent action — backed by clear timelines, budgets and accountability. Mbare does not need more promises. It needs decisive intervention.