CHIPRA PRESS STATEMENT ON PROPOSED RATE INCREASES in CHITUNGWIZA's 2016-2017 budget.

Chitungwiza Progressive Residents Association (CHIPRA).

Press Statement on the Chitungwiza Town Council's proposed rate increases for the 2015-16 budget.

On behalf of Chitungwiza residents, the Chitungwiza Progressive Residents Association (CHIPRA) strongly rejects a proposal made by  Management at Chitungwiza Town Council to increase water rates (from 0.53c to 0.83c per kilolitre) and add a new road levy (of 0.50c per housing unit) for the Town Council's budget for 2016-2017.

The mooted rate increases are unacceptable as they will further burden the long suffering ratepayers and deepen poverty at household level, coming against the backdrop of an underperforming Zimbabwean economy and widespread unemployment in the town.

While acknowledging the difficult financial situation at Chitungwiza Town Council, CHIPRA feels that Management should be strive to do more with the limited resources at its disposal through judicious financial management and streamlining of operations to increase efficiency in service delivery.

We call on the Town Clerk and his Management team to desist from trying to clandestinely smuggle these unsustainable rate increments into the 2016-2017 budget under the guise of 'token' budget consultation meetings which are hastily organised and poorly publicised, thereby denying residents a platform to meaningfully participate in the their town's budgeting cycle process.

In this regard, CHIPRA calls on the Town Clerk and his Management team to organise proper ward-based budget consultative meetings that are publicised in advanced.

CHIPRA demands transparency and accountability in the management of financial affairs of Chitungwiza! The political and administrative leadership at Chitungwiza Town Council have a duty to empower residents to partake in the governance of their town by revealing the details of its financial situation which will enable residents to make informed contributions.

CHIPRA is convinced that without details such as the Town's expenditure on major cost categories such as the monthly salary bill, financial obligations to service providers such as ZINWA, revenue sources and projections- It is an exercise in futility to expect residents to make informed contributions and effectively participate in the budget making processes. We therefore demand an Independent Audit of the town's finances whose report will be shared with residents and other stakeholders in Chitungwiza's local governance matrix as a starting point of the town's 2016-2017 budget cycle.

Information is power and ' Kusaziva kufa'; As a bonafide representative of the people of Chitungwiza, CHIPRA will not endorse  a budget drafted without informed residents' input i.e an audit report and other key details of the town's finances!

If Management at Chitungwiza continue to withhold financial information from stakeholders, CHIPRA will  lobby the Minister of Local government to reject the product of a flawed budgeting process when the town's budget is placed before him for approval.

 NO Audit- NO Budget!

Crowdsourcing ideas for the renewal/reoperalisation/refurbishment of public toilets in Zengeza Chitungwiza.

Dear Colleagues/Neighbours/friends.

Introducing CHIPRA.

The Chitungwiza progressive Residents association (CHIPRA) is a membership-based association for residents of Chitungwiza and the surrounding peri-urban areas like Nyatsime, Zico and Musona villages.

CHIPRA is a membership-based residents association formed by Chitungwiza residents to articulate and defend their rights, needs and aspirations on issues of service delivery and housing fall within the sphere of local governance.

CHIPRA is crowdsourcing for ideas and material support for a ground-breaking urban renewal project that will facilitate the refurbishment, redesigning and reopening of rundown, neglected and out of operation public toilet buildings at Zengeza Five shopping centre in Chitungwiza. Zengeza Five being the starting point and if the idea gains currency and sustainability, the project will be extended to all public toilets in Chitungwiza and beyond.

Background facts are that the local authority- the Chitungwiza Municipality has failed to maintain and keep operational public toilets in the town and most if not all have been closed down and abandoned created messy health hazards at popular shopping centres.

CHIPRA believes that closing public toilets robs chitungwiza residents of their dignity as they are forced to relieve themselves in the open. Its also compromises residents right to health and creates sanitation hazards.

CHIPRA envisages a situation were the public toilets will be refurbished and brought back into operation and the grounds will be redesigned into public bathing facilities through the addition of shower cubicles and the sinking of a borehole to provide the necessary water.

It invites residents, stakeholders and other experts to proffer solutions on how the toilets can be kept open operational clean and welcoming to the men, women and children of chitungwiza who would like to have ago.

Waiting for your contribution.

Profile Christine

Profile of CCDN member: 

Name: Christine Mupundumani

Age : 26years

Sex : Female

Christine Mupundumaniis a twenty six year old single parent to two boys- the first one, aged six years’ is already in primary school while the second one is who is two years younger than his sibling attends crèche close to their rented home in Zengeza 2, Chitungwiza.  With his two kids in tow, Christine walks with a   swagger as she approaches the Information desk behind the stage were artists are performing.

Christine's woes began in 2007 as Zimbabwe’s sociopolitical and economic crisis climaxed. Her husband Tendai, was retrenched from tile-making company based in Harare’s Southerton industrial area with a paltry allowance. 

Faced with a hyperinflationary economic environment characterized by food and basic commodities shortages, Tendai joined the great trek down south and jumped the border with former workmates to look for employment opportunities in South Africa. At first Tendai applauded the idea hoping her husband would remit his earnings and help take care of their families. Tendai kept his promise and would send groceries and money every month to his family through bus drivers who ply the Johannesburg-Harare route. As the elders saying “say out of sight out of mind”, With the passage of time, the remittances grew lesser and so did the frequency until they turned into a sad twice a year ritual and eventually dried up after three years. Tendai‘s cell phone number went unanswered at first until it was not reachable.

As her husband’s support gradually decreased, Christine sensed danger and was forced to look for an alternative source of income to supplement her husband’s dwindling remittances. With the tacit support of her landlord who sympathized with her plight she started attending to clients who needed their hair done under a tree in her landlord’s backyard in 2009. Slowly she gained valuable experience and improved her skills as her clientele grew and in 2010, she built a two-roomed corrugated iron shack which he lovingly decorated and turned into a Hair salon. She invited two male barbers and two female hairdressers who rent space from her and work in the salon. Her thriving business has enabled her to pay rent, feed her kids and educated them leaving a healthy surplus which she is saving for a rainy day. Her husband’s remittances are the last thing on the back of her mind and she is grateful for hard times that created an opportunity for her to be a successful businesswoman.

Despite the euphoria and self-confidence that comes with running a successful enterprise, Christine is a worried woman. She knows her business premises are illegal under Chitungwiza’s by-laws and they also violate national public Health laws and other town planning statutes marking them as legitimate targets for state-sponsored demolitions like the notorious Operation Murambatsvina.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways”, was how she summed up her experience. “I never thought I would be so financially independent in my life. I feel in charge and whatever I need in life- I have to work hard, earn, save and purchase  

“This road-show is great and was a real eye opener  for me as a self-employed single parent who looks after two kids from the proceeds of my hairdressing salon” she concluded.

Christine is now a member of CCDN. She has applied for Youth funds from CABS. She met and joined a performing arts group through CCDN. Visit her facebook page

More CCDN road show pics

CCDN roadshow in pictures

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 Why youth entrepreneurs should work in groups/form syndicates and register their companies?

The spirit of entrepreneurship is well and alive in Chitungwiza. All over the locations from St Marys to Unit O, people are engaged in various income-generating activities, home industries, retailing, brick and Dura-wall making and other activities that earn them a livelihood. These businessman and women face a lot of problems chief among them being shortages of proper operating premises, access to capital and transport costs among other problems.

Young people who are into entrepreneurship in Chitungwiza are encouraged to work in groups or form syndicates as groups have many advantages over operating as individuals. Some of the advantages of working in groups are that:

·         You can share costs like rent, security, electricity and water bills.

·         You can assist each other when more hands are needed which reduces labour costs.

·          You can pool money together  as capital and invest in machinery which would be unaffordable as an individual.

·         Banks are more likely to lend money to groups rather than individuals.

However working as a group also has its disadvantages as misunderstandings and personal differences are likely to interfere with group dynamics. To avoid these problems- young entrepreneurs must register their companies and turn their partnerships into shareholding with memorandum of associations being the agreement between the partners.

 This brings us to our main point- Why young entrepreneurs must register their business with the Ministry of industry and trade under the Companies act of

The advantages of registering your business under the companies act are:

·         It is a requirement under Zimbabwe’s laws so you can operate legally.

·         You become tax compliant

·         It is a prerequisite of doing business with the government and its departments. Once you are registered as a company you can register on departmental suppliers databases and  compete for tenders from government and big companies.

·         Easy access to capital: banks prefer to lend money to registered companies instead of individuals or unregistered partnerships.

I will outline below, the procedure of registering a company under the companies act with the Department of Deeds, companies, trademarks and Industrial designs which is found at 38 Nelson Mandela Avenue corner Angwa street in Harare. The information I am going to share with you is contained in a flier made by the same department  which is available for free on our Information desk.

1.       Name search- The first step in registering a company is to come up with a name for the company. Once you have your preferred name, your approach the companies office and have a name search conducted to see that no other company holds the same name and  to verify that your preferred name is available .

Name search is done on a CR21 form according to section 24 of the act. All documents are lodged in duplicate and a fee of US$5.00 is payable

2.       After the name search, the companies office issues a CV4 form which is a confirmation of the reserved name.

3.       Memorandum and articles of Association- the forms can be purchased from Kingstons Bookshops and completed. These forms are an agreement between the partners on shareholding  and company formation. These are lodged after you have received a reserved name confirmation together with CR6 and CR14 forms which are available at kingstons and government printers. A minimum fee of US$100.00.

4.       CR6 form states the physical address of the company

5.       CR14 states the companies directors and the secretary

6.       A US$20.00 fee is payable in lodging these two forms.

7.       After you have successfully completed the above-mentioned procedures that is when you are issued with the certificate of incorporation for US$20.00.

Total cost of registering company is US$5 plus US$100 plus US$20 plus US$20 adds up to US$145.00.

A presentation prepared by Admire Mutize (Programs and Communications Manager CCDN) for  CCDN”s inaugural road-show at Zengeza 2 Shopping centre on 10 March 2012.

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 Reform odious by-laws and create an enabling legal environment for youth entrepreneurship in Chitungwiza.

The spirit of self-reliance and entrepreneurship is very much alive in the town of Chitungwiza, situated some 30 kilometers to the south of Harare. A drive around the town reveals that the residents are actively defying the area’s residential tag and in the process , the local authorities by-laws by establishing income-generating  projects in and around their places of residence. Small-scale brick, tile, tombstone and palisade fence making workshops compete for roadside space with welding, panel-beating and mechanical workshops. Open-air furniture showrooms showcasing sofas, beds, room-dividers and cupboards decorate major road intersections while backyard factories churning out basics like candles, clothes, detergents and confectionery are juxtaposed side by side with homes turning the sprawling township into a hybrid industrial-residential complex.

Known colloquially as Chi-town, the bustling high-density residential area was established in 1978 as a dormitory town to house mainly workers from Harare’s industrial areas, relieving the congestion in the capital’s townships. The third largest and fastest growing urban area in Zimbabwe, Chitungwiza has grown tremendously since attaining full municipal status in 1981 into a huge people’s town with an estimated population of around one and a half million people. Chitungwiza has several suburbs. Seke is an aggregation of many sections with fifteen different housing units which are named after the alphabet from Seke Unit A to Seke Unit P whilst Zengeza is composed of five different sub-sections; Zengeza one to five. The houses are mostly high density detached units of a single storey with a small yard surrounding these modest houses.
 These entrepreneurs drawn from all walks of life ply their diverse trades under trees, by the roadside and on any open space available in the town. The common denominator  and defining feature of these businesspeople and their enterprises is their location in residential areas on ‘premises’ that are not approved by the authorities which places them on the wrong side of the town’s by-laws and public health laws! Marking them as legitimate targets for state-sponsored demolition operations like the notorius Operation Murambatsvina . Who are these businesspeople? Where did they come from and why do they choose to operate outside the confines of national and local laws? Which national laws and by-laws are they violating?

At the most basic level, they are hardworking Zimbabweans choosing  self-employment as their response to the nation’s and by extension, their home town’s crisis of unemployment estimated to be around 90% by some experts.  They did not sit back and complain about the lack of employment opportunities and their miserable condition! They did not demand anything from anyone but took whatever was available- be it an open space in their backyard or by the roadside, utilised it and created income-generating opportunities for themselves and their neighbors.  These workers are superheroes to their families whom they provide for and to the community which they supply with quality goods at an affordable price. Life literally gave them rocks and they crushed them into three-quarter aggregate stones which they sold to the builders for an income.
Most of them are former factory workers- skilled and experienced in their trades- who were retrenched during the country’s decade-long recession as companies closed down or downsized. Some are graduates and qualified artisan’s who could not find employment in the formal sector and decided to start business with little in terms of capital. All of them are driven by self-belief and a ‘can do’ attitude that has seen them set up shop against all odds in a hostile economic and legal environment.

They are resourceful, resilient, innovative and independent thinkers who deserve to be applauded and supported- not harassed by the municipal police for serving their community in the best way they can. It is a glaring injustice under any circumstances to punish these entrepreneurs for being too poor to buy or rent proper premises from which to operate their businesses from.  In fact, these laws/ by-laws violate the poor business people’s (economic rights) i.e their rights to work and participate in economic processes. Their very existence in Chitungwiza’s  book of statuettes is an affront to the town’s motto- “Pamberi nekushandira pamwe” literally translated to mean “Forward with working together.  How can the residents of Chitungwiza ‘work together’  when they are by-laws criminalizing free enterprise and ingenuity? These laws have became odious and archaic in today’s world and should be revised accordingly or scrapped off completely!

On the other hand, Laws and by-laws are vital in balancing the competing interests of the town’s residents, businesspeople and the local municipality, i.e, the Chitungwiza Town Council. They are necessary for order, environmental conservation, hygiene/public health and aesthetic considerations. Without laws, human activities will be chaotic and prone to conflict which is retrogressive to the town’s development and the welfare of its residents. While it is true that the haphazard, unregulated manner in which these business have mushroomed in residential areas has courted the ire of some residents and the wrath of the law –enforcement agencies.It is interesting to note the town’s by-laws were crafted by colonial authorities who were informed by an apartheid mentality that regarded ‘locations’ like Chitungwiza as nothing other than reservoirs of cheap labour to be exploited by big business as and when it saw fit. These authorities assumed correctly then, that job opportunities were abundant and everyone who wanted to work was certain to find gainful employment in the formal sector, a situation that is far removed from our present reality.  No production or industry was supposed to take place in these ghettos then and no production is supposed to take place now in Chitungwiza (outside its very small industrial area) as a result of this colonial legacy despite the quantum sea changes in ideologies from apartheid to indigenization that has taken place since these laws were enacted. The need to reform these laws and bring them into sync with the community’s norms and aspirations cannot be overemphasized.

Small businesses are recognized the world over as the engines of economic growth, national and community development. The example of Asian tigers refers. They managed to transform their moribund national economies to world-class competitiveness on the back of small to medium enterprises in a space of two decades. If we as a nation are to transcend our economic challenges and build an inclusive economy- these start-up ventures should be encouraged and nurtured for them to flourish and hire more workers and breathe life into our comatose economy rather than concentrating on bailing out huge , inefficient and uncompetitive corporations like the recently bankrupt Rennaisance bank, which is the norm at present in Zimbabwe.



Chitungwiza Community Development Network (CCDN) is a nascent organisation that was formed in August 2010 by young men and women who are into entrepreneurship in Chitungwiza. The organisation seeks to establish networks and partnerships among entrepreneurs, decision makers, business and development partners so that the efforts of young women and men of Chitungwiza can be meaningfully harvested and harnessed for community development, sustainable livelihoods and economic empowerment.  After conducting a baseline survey of the challenges,  opportunities and issues affecting entrepreneurs based in the town, it identified outdated laws/by-laws regulating the location of businesses/industries One of its main programmes is to advocate for a pro-poor entrepreneur-friendly legal environment by lobbying local and national authorities to reform laws/by-laws that disadvantage struggling businesspeople. The organisation invites interested businesspeople, aspiring entrepreneurs and concerned residents to join the network and participate in the development of their community .

The writer, Admire Mutize is the organisation’s Programs and Communications Officer. He can be contacted on chitungwizacommunity@gmail.com or on 00263 776 358 933

Introducing the Chitungwiza Community Development Network (CCDN).

The Chitungwiza Community Development Network (CCDN) is a nascent youth serving organization that was formed in October 2010 in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza- situated some thirty kilometers south of the City of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Since its inception, the network has managed to grow by attracting membership and building fraternal relationships with like-minded organizations. Its call for a rights based approach to economic empowerment has found resonance among the town’s youthful population the majority of whom are forced to work in the informal sector in a country with an unprecedented unemployment rate of 90%. Its area of focus is youth economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and its membership consists of young men and women who are into self-employment, income –generating activities, home and backyard industries.