Tracy Mafa, Hon Brian James, Freeman Bosso and Dumani Ntando
Mutare, 21 June 2025– A constructive and inclusive dialogue was held on Saturday in Mutare, where residents, youth activists, and panellists deliberated on the proposed introduction of prepaid water meters amid growing frustration over the city’s persistent water challenges.
The engagement, organised by The Big Conversation in partnership with Young Leaders Training Programme Alumni and supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, aimed to promote citizen participation and foster public accountability in local service delivery. The dialogue focused specifically on water access, affordability, and the implications of shifting towards prepaid systems.
Participants pointed to frequent water shortages, ageing infrastructure, burst pipes, illegal water connections, and ballooning unpaid water bills as core issues affecting residents across the city. These problems have contributed to rising public concern about the management of water systems by Mutare City Council.
“We want to build citizen urgency in local governance,” said Tracy Mafa, one of the facilitators and a youth development advocate. “This is a constitutional matter. Section 77 guarantees every citizen the right to safe, clean, and potable water, while Section 73 protects our right to a clean environment.”
In February this year, Mutare City Council announced plans to install 100 prepaid water meters in a pilot phase. The initiative is aligned with a broader national strategy by central government, which intends to roll out 600,000 prepaid water meters countrywide. However, the announcement has triggered public debate, with many questioning whether such a shift is viable, lawful, and inclusive.
Hon. James Brian, Member of Parliament for Mutare Central and one of the dialogue panellists, acknowledged that prepaid meters may be beneficial in theory but emphasised the need for proper planning and transparency.
“Prepaid meters are good, but there is a lot that needs to be done so that we don’t have problems in the future,” said Brian. He also criticised excessive centralisation of local authority decisions. “In 2008, council couldn’t even purchase meters due to centralisation,” he noted.
He proposed that council should ring-fence all water-related revenue to improve service delivery, instead of resorting to privatisation models that may compromise public access.
Richard Mugobo, a citizen journalist and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation alumnus, said the Mutare water crisis intensified around 2015 and has since exposed severe governance and infrastructure failings. He urged residents to become more organised and active in demanding accountability from both local authorities and elected officials.
Freeman Bosso, a panellist, warned that prepaid meters could negatively affect vulnerable groups such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and unemployed residents. “Diseases will increase. Women and children will be the most affected,” he said, further expressing concern about the financial burden that installation and connection costs would impose on poor households.
Ntando Dumani, a panellist who spoke in his personal capacity as a resident of Plumtree, shared lessons from his town’s experience with prepaid meters. While the meters initially helped the local authority recover water arrears, he said the system eventually failed due to lack of maintenance and the closure of the supplying company. “Council is now reverting back to the old system,” said Dumani, emphasising the importance of clear service-level agreements and long-term sustainability for any water management reform.
Mafa also referred to the landmark Mazibuko vs City of Johannesburg case in South Africa, where the court ruled that every individual must receive at least 42 litres of water per day for free, with charges only applying beyond that. She said such legal precedents should help shape Zimbabwe’s approach to water governance and ensure policies uphold human rights.
Participants also acknowledged that Mutare City Council recently conducted stakeholder consultations as part of efforts to improve transparency and gather public input on water service delivery. Youths and community-based organisations (CBOs) were encouraged to participate actively in these engagements as part of a broader social service delivery audit and citizen participation process.
Proud Z. Nyakuni, a Labour and Environmental Lawyer with interests in Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, and also a YLTP Alumni member, urged young people to take initiative in accessing and verifying information.
“Access to information is not usually given on a silver platter,” she said. “It is a right, but residents must actively participate for it to be realised.”
The dialogue concluded with the development of an action plan that includes petitioning both Mutare City Council and Parliament, drafting a white paper on prepaid water metering and water rights, creating tools to track local water service challenges, and organising a Water Management Indaba to bring all stakeholders together and seek consensus on the best way forward.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution,” said Mafa. “But we must ensure that no one is left behind in the name of technology.”
