By HRH Princess Eugene Majuru, Sovereign Custodian of the Mbari Clan and Harare

There comes a time when those entrusted with public authority must stop looking for convenient scapegoats and confront the uncomfortable truth. Harare’s crisis did not begin with vendors standing on pavements. The deterioration of Zimbabwe’s capital city is the consequence of years of inadequate planning, failing infrastructure, poor service delivery, weak enforcement, inadequate investment, political and administrative failures, and, where allegations of corruption have been raised, insufficient accountability.

Yet today we are being presented with a remarkably convenient explanation: businesses are allegedly leaving the Harare Central Business District because vendors have taken over the pavements.

That explanation is far too simplistic. Vendors are certainly part of the CBD’s congestion and public-space problem. The City of Harare itself has launched Operation Chenesa Harare to address illegal vending, blocked public spaces, cleanliness and congestion.

But to claim that vendors are the principal reason businesses have migrated to the suburbs is to ignore the much bigger structural failures that have been staring authorities in the face for years.

 

Businesses do not leave cities for one reason

A business owner wants an environment in which customers can reach the business, employees can work, goods can be delivered, utilities are available, premises are secure and operating costs make commercial sense.

Ask the business community why it has moved.

Ask about electricity.

Ask about water.

Ask about traffic.

Ask about parking.

Ask about roads.

Ask about refuse collection.

Ask about security.

Ask about municipal charges.

Ask about the reliability of public services.

Ask about the condition of buildings.

Ask about the general business environment.

Then ask whether vendors alone explain the exodus.

They do not.

Harare’s water crisis is not imaginary. In January 2025, reports documented severe shortages in the CBD, with businesses having to truck in water. In March 2026, a major failure at Warren Control disrupted supplies to the CBD and suburbs. Even in 2026, residents in different parts of the city have continued raising concerns about persistent shortages.

If a business cannot reliably access water, electricity and basic infrastructure, why should we be surprised when its owner looks elsewhere?

 

The suburbs have something the CBD increasingly struggles to provide

One of the realities that authorities need to examine honestly is the infrastructure available to businesses outside the CBD.

Businesses operating in some suburban locations have access to alternative water sources, including boreholes and tankered water. Communities themselves have increasingly relied on boreholes where municipal supplies have failed; Harare residents have been reported as relying on boreholes because of unreliable council water.

That creates an obvious commercial question.

If a business can operate from a suburban property where it can secure alternative water supplies, provide parking and avoid the daily congestion of the CBD, why would its owner remain in the city centre simply because authorities want businesses there?

Businesses follow functionality.

They follow customers.

They follow infrastructure.

They follow affordability.

They follow survival.

 

Parking has become another obstacle

Parking in the CBD has become increasingly difficult, while motorists face formal parking charges and expanding controlled parking zones. City Parking has continued expanding its self-service parking system across the CBD.

The question authorities should be asking is not simply, “How do we collect more parking revenue?”

It should be:

“How do we make it easy for people to come into Harare, conduct business and leave?”

A capital city should not feel hostile to the very people whose economic activity keeps it alive.

Traffic congestion, inadequate parking and deteriorating roads create costs for businesses and consumers alike.

And roads matter.

I recently drove around Harare and what I saw was deeply disturbing. Potholes and deteriorating road surfaces are no longer isolated inconveniences. In many places the roads appear to be crying out for systematic rehabilitation.

At the same time, more and more vehicles continue to enter the road network.

Where is the long-term traffic-management plan?

Where is the integrated transport strategy?

Where is the serious road-maintenance programme?

Where is the planning for a growing metropolitan population?

 

A capital city cannot be managed through crisis response alone

This is perhaps the greatest problem.

Harare often appears to be managed only when a crisis becomes impossible to ignore.

A problem grows.

Residents complain.

Businesses complain.

Letters are written.

Meetings are held.

Nothing substantial happens.

The problem becomes worse.

Then authorities launch an operation.

Police and municipal enforcement officers appear.

Buildings are inspected.

Vendors are removed.

People are displaced.

And government announces that order has been restored.

But what happens next?

That is the question.

Harare does not need another temporary clean-up.

 

Harare needs a functioning urban-management system.

The City needs long-term infrastructure planning, transparent procurement, accountable officials, reliable water and electricity, functioning roads, modern parking systems, properly planned markets, efficient public transport, refuse collection, public toilets and serious development control.

A city cannot be transformed through publicity campaigns.

It is transformed through competent administration.

 

And what about the vendors?

Let us be clear.

Informal traders are human beings.

They have families.

They have children.

They have rent to pay.

They have food to buy.

Many are trying to survive in an economy that has not created enough formal employment.

The answer cannot simply be to chase them from one pavement to another.

The Government has now introduced designated trading arrangements and new vending hours, including a 6am-to-6pm CBD trading window. It has also announced a formalisation programme intended to bring informal traders into regulated spaces.

That approach should be judged by what it actually delivers.

Where are the properly designed markets?

Where are the toilets?

Where is clean water?

Where are waste-disposal facilities?

Where is lighting?

Where are safe storage facilities?

Where is security?

Where is affordable transport for traders and their customers?

If authorities want people to leave pavements, they must provide viable alternatives.

Enforcement without alternatives simply moves the problem.

 

Human beings are not disposable

I am particularly concerned by the manner in which some urban and rural enforcement operations have been conducted.

There must be order.

There must be laws.

There must be properly regulated public spaces.

But there must also be humanity.

Human lives matter.

The poor matter.

The wealthy matter.

Children matter.

Women matter.

The elderly matter.

People with disabilities matter.

Business owners matter.

Informal traders matter.

Every Zimbabwean deserves to be treated as a human being.

The use of force, humiliation, intimidation or indiscriminate demolition should never become the default method of public administration.

A child who watches their parents lose their livelihood or sees their home or business destroyed may carry that trauma for years.

We must never become so obsessed with “cleaning up” a city that we forget the people who live in it.

 

To Minister Ziyambi: justice must begin with humanity

As Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Ziyambi Ziyambi occupies an office whose own stated values include humanity, transparency, professionalism, efficiency, accessibility and accountability.

Those principles must mean something beyond words on a government website.

When citizens encounter the machinery of government, they must feel that the law protects their humanity rather than simply empowering the State to exercise force against them.

Justice is not merely about whether authorities possess the legal power to do something.

It is also about how that power is exercised.

It is about proportionality.

It is about dignity.

It is about due process.

It is about listening.

It is about finding solutions before reaching for the hammer.

I therefore call upon those in positions of legal authority to ensure that enforcement across Harare is guided by the principles of humanity, dignity and lawful, proportionate action.

 

To Mayor Jacob Mafume: the custodians of Harare are here

To the Mayor of Harare, Councillor Jacob Mafume, I say this directly:

We are here.

The custodians of the heritage and traditional identity of Harare have not disappeared.

We are not enemies of the City.

We are not opponents of development.

We are not seeking chaos.

We want Harare to work.

We want businesses to prosper.

We want clean streets.

We want safe communities.

We want functioning infrastructure.

We want dignity for ordinary people.

We want a capital city worthy of Zimbabwe.

And we are prepared to contribute our knowledge, heritage perspective and ideas.

The City should not wait until there is another crisis before engaging the people connected to the history and heritage of this land.

Engagement should not happen only when authorities want traditional participation in ceremonies, appeals to ancestors or spiritual intervention during difficult moments.

If traditional custodians are considered important when there is a spiritual crisis, they should also be considered important when there is a governance and development crisis.

That relationship must become genuine, structured and continuous.

 

Harare has a history that cannot simply be erased

As Sovereign Custodian of the Mbari Clan and Harare, I speak from a position rooted in the heritage and traditional identity of the land.

The Mbari clan’s historical and spiritual connection to Harare is central to the heritage narrative I represent.

The precise legal status of traditional land authority today is a matter that belongs within Zimbabwe’s constitutional, statutory and historical frameworks and should be addressed through evidence, dialogue and lawful processes.

But history cannot simply be erased because modern administrative boundaries have been drawn.

Names can change.

Institutions can change.

Political administrations can change.

Urban boundaries can change.

But a people’s historical memory does not disappear because someone decides not to acknowledge it.

The importance of the Mbari clan to Harare’s heritage therefore deserves serious historical documentation, public discussion and engagement with the relevant traditional, cultural and academic institutions.

No government office can simply decree that heritage no longer matters.

 

We cannot build Harare while excluding its people

One of the greatest mistakes authorities can make is believing that government possesses all the answers.

It does not.

Residents have knowledge.

Business owners have knowledge.

Traditional custodians have knowledge.

Engineers have knowledge.

Architects have knowledge.

Academics have knowledge.

Informal traders have knowledge.

Transport operators have knowledge.

Young people have knowledge.

Women have knowledge.

The people who live and work in Harare every day understand problems that may never appear in a government report.

That knowledge should be used.

Instead of asking:

“How do we remove these people?”

Authorities should ask:

“How do we design a city that works for everyone?”

 

Five things Harare urgently needs

First, a genuine CBD business recovery programme should be established, involving businesses, property owners, residents, transport operators, urban planners and heritage custodians.

Second, a transparent infrastructure audit should identify every major road, water, electricity, drainage, parking, public toilet and waste-management failure, with publicly accessible timelines for fixing them.

Third, a properly planned informal-trading system should be established. Vendors need designated, serviced markets rather than empty promises.

Fourth, a permanent Harare Urban Development Forum should bring together Council, central government, business, residents, traditional custodians, technical experts and civil society. Meetings should produce published decisions and implementation dates.

Fifth, accountability must become measurable. Officials responsible for services should have clear performance obligations, and residents should be able to see what has been promised, what has been delivered and what remains outstanding.

Harare does not need another slogan.

It needs results.

 

Do not blame the pavement for a problem that began much deeper

The vendors did not create every pothole.

The vendors did not cause every water failure.

The vendors did not create every electricity shortage.

The vendors did not design the city’s parking system.

The vendors did not create decades of inadequate urban planning.

The vendors did not determine how municipal resources are managed.

And vendors certainly cannot be blamed for every business that has decided that the CBD is no longer the most practical place to operate.

Deal with illegal vending where it exists.

Restore public spaces.

Protect pedestrians.

Regulate commerce.

But simultaneously fix the infrastructure and governance failures that make the CBD unattractive.

Otherwise, authorities will clear the pavements today and discover tomorrow that businesses are still leaving.

 

Harare deserves better

Harare is the capital of Zimbabwe.

It should not look like a city that has been abandoned.

It should not be normal for people to spend hours looking for parking.

It should not be normal for businesses to arrange private water supplies simply to function.

It should not be normal for residents to live with failing roads, unreliable services and deteriorating public infrastructure.

And it should certainly not be normal for ordinary citizens to write repeatedly to authorities and receive silence.

A government that does not listen eventually loses touch with the people it governs.

A council that does not respond to residents eventually loses their confidence.

And a capital city that is not properly planned eventually pays the price economically, socially and environmentally.

 

The message from the Sovereign Custodian

I speak today with a heavy heart.

As Princess of Harare and Sovereign Custodian of the Mbari Clan, it pains me to watch a city with such extraordinary history and potential deteriorate before our eyes.

But this is not merely a complaint.

It is a call to action.

To the Government of Zimbabwe:

Listen to the people.

To Harare City Council:

Work with the people.

 

To Mayor Mafume:

Engage the custodians, residents and business community before making decisions about the future of Harare.

 

To Minister Ziyambi:

Let humanity, dignity, accountability and justice guide the exercise of public power.

To businesses:

Speak openly about the real reasons you are leaving the CBD.

 

To vendors:

You have a right to dignity and lawful economic participation, but that participation must also respect public space, safety and the rights of others.

And to every Harare resident:

Do not accept deterioration as normal.

Harare can be rebuilt.

But it will not be rebuilt through blame.

It will not be rebuilt through intimidation.

It will not be rebuilt through demolitions alone.

It will not be rebuilt by pretending that vendors are the root of every problem.

It will be rebuilt through competence, accountability, infrastructure, consultation, heritage, humanity and Ubuntu.

The custodians of Harare are here.

We have ideas.

We have knowledge.

We have a historical and spiritual connection to this land.

We are willing to work.

But partnership must be genuine.

I have spoken.

Those with ears to hear have heard.

And we expect to see change.

Not cosmetic change.

Not another operation.

Real change.

Change that respects human beings.

Change that respects Harare.

Change that respects its history.

Change that respects its people.

And change that finally gives Zimbabwe’s capital city the dignity it deserves.

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