ACTING Harare mayor, councillor George Mjajati, has issued a stern warning to city officials, declaring they will be held personally accountable for failing to deliver services after signing performance contracts aimed at improving service delivery in the capital.
The warning signals a tough accountability drive at Town House as the city grapples with deep-rooted corruption, financial mismanagement and deteriorating service delivery that has angered residents for years.
Mjajati said the responsibility and accountability rested squarely on officials once they appended their signatures to the contracts.
“The way to sign the contract is for the mayor, it is not the councillor. It is you who signs the contract and it is you who is going to be measured, and it is you who is going to be arrested,” he said.
Mjajati made the remarks during the signing of performance contracts at Town House.
The performance contracts were signed by Harare City Council subsidiaries, including Rufaro Marketing, City Parking and Harare City Markets.
Mjajati said the contracts were designed to strengthen accountability and improve performance, adding that the local authority was shifting towards a measurable performance management system in which officials will be assessed based on delivery and efficiency.
“When you do your work well, the rest of council is doing its work well and you get the place,” he said.
The mayor’s threat comes at a time when Harare City Council is drowning in corruption scandals, with multiple senior officials and former mayors already facing criminal charges.
A Commission of Inquiry chaired by retired Justice Maphios Cheda exposed a systemic rot at Town House, uncovering evidence of widespread financial mismanagement, illegal land allocation and deliberate obstruction of financial transparency.
More than 1 000 individuals were found to have unauthorised access to the city’s financial system, while five council workers allegedly used fake accounts to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from ratepayers in just a few days.
The commission, established by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, also found that more than a dozen council subsidiaries were operating with little or no financial oversight, with their accounts not submitted and revenue largely unaccounted for.
In total, the city is estimated to have lost more than US$250 million through leakages and corruption over the past five years.
Mjajati stressed that the city can no longer afford poor service delivery at a time when residents expect improved roads, functional street lights, reliable refuse collection and consistent water supply.
“There are also critical revenue collection points for us. We know, for example, City Parking systems are performing well from what I have observed,” Mjajati said.
“We want to make sure that our workers give the proper service that residents are paying for.”
Acting town clerk Phakamile Mabhena Moyo said council was working to improve the city’s financial standing.
“To achieve sustainable growth and better self-reliance, we are establishing strategic business units to sell our products,” he said.
Moyo added that council officials and departments must embrace performance standards that promote efficiency, responsibility and improved service delivery across the city.
“Our purpose is to stabilise communities, ensuring that specific units are directly accountable for their financial needs,” he said.