Harare City Council Suspends Licensing Of Fuel Service Stations
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said that the local authority has suspended the licensing of service stations and will soon consult with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) on the issue.
This decision follows complaints from residents concerning the proliferation of service stations in the city, particularly in residential areas.
Many residents suspect that corruption among officials has played a role in the approval of numerous service stations.
In an interview with Business Times, Mafume confirmed that the local authority has halted the issuance of permits for the construction of fuel service stations. He said:
We have ordered that they stop giving any permits for a service station until a meeting is held with EMA, ZERA and the council so that we understand what is going on.
We are going to write a letter to stakeholders through our parent ministry for them to come on board and discuss the process involved.
Despite widespread disapproval from councillors and Mayor Mafume’s recent stance, acting Director of Town Planning Samuel Nyabeza said that the proliferation of service stations is not problematic.
He claimed that the process is transparent and essential for the local authority’s revenue generation. Said Nyabeza:
We consult experts and neighbours and decisions are made with full council endorsement.
The vehicle population in the city is increasing daily. We now have around 1.5 million vehicles in Harare compared to less than a million five years ago. The proliferation of service stations is simply a matter of supply meeting demand.
A decision is made which is endorsed by full council then a payment is granted with several conditions. But before the service station is built, before building plans for service stations are submitted, we will require that the applicant goes to EMA to apply for an environmental impact assessment approval.
Before they grant the certificate, they invite stakeholders around that area to a meeting to hear their views.
They do thorough interrogations about the safety, about the issues pertaining to underground water, safety of the neighbours, safety of the public before they grant the EIA certificate.
Then they will now be able to start submission of building plans.
However, Precious Shumba, Director of the Harare Residents Trust, told Business Times that many service stations are being established in residential areas, wetlands, and hazardous locations near intersections, indicating that corruption may be influencing these decisions. He said:
There is a lot of corruption in the local authorities and there is also a lack of monitoring by EMA.
We expect the Regional Town and Country Planning Act to be implemented fully. However, most service stations are being established in residential areas, wetlands, and hazardous locations near intersections.
This poses serious challenges in emergencies such as fire outbreaks or unforeseen leaks that could pollute the environment.
So this is caused by massive corruption involving councillors and technocrats within local authorities.
The weakness we have also noted is the issue of environmental impact assessments that are undertaken by the owners of the service stations and they always come out with a positive report which disregards environmental protection.
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