Zimbabwe has challenged African cities to break their dependence on government transfers and build a new generation of revenue-generating infrastructure, arguing that financially self-reliant municipalities are essential to restoring services and driving urban growth.
Speaking at a high-level policy discussion on infrastructure investment, project delivery, financing and regional collaboration at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa 2026 in Century City on Tuesday, Local Government and Public Works Minister D. Garwe said cities could no longer afford to treat infrastructure as a cost centre alone.
His message was blunt: municipalities that cannot generate enough revenue to sustain their operations will remain trapped in a cycle of deteriorating services, fiscal dependence and delayed development.
“Our cities cannot prosper while local authorities remain dependent on fiscal transfers. Financial self-reliance must be the goal,” Garwe said.
The minister said investment in water, electricity, solid waste, urban logistics and power-distribution infrastructure could fundamentally change the financial position of local authorities—provided such projects were designed to deliver both public value and sustainable income.
The argument comes as Zimbabwe’s local authorities face persistent pressure to improve service delivery while operating in an environment of limited public finances, weak revenue collection and mounting infrastructure demands. Garwe said the answer was not simply to ask the national Treasury for more money, but to redesign the way councils plan, finance and manage urban assets.
From administrators to engines of local growth
Garwe linked the approach to Zimbabwe’s wider transformation agenda, citing a November 2023 directive by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that called on local authorities to move beyond their traditional administrative role and become active facilitators of local economic development.
According to Garwe, the directive opened the door for councils to form strategic partnerships, embrace technology and operate under performance-based systems capable of delivering measurable results.
That shift, he said, would require local authorities to think less like bureaucracies and more like development institutions—without abandoning their obligation to protect the public interest.
One of the clearest examples is the City of Harare’s 30-year public-private partnership to transform the Pomona dumpsite into an integrated environmental and energy hub.
The project brings together engineered landfills, waste encapsulation, wastewater treatment and waste sorting. It is expected to generate between 16 and 22 megawatts of electricity for the national grid, turning a long-standing urban liability into a potential source of energy, revenue and improved public health.
Garwe said the model was being replicated elsewhere in Zimbabwe as the country sought to turn waste into energy while advancing its zero-waste ambitions.
The Pomona project will ultimately be judged not by the language of policy conferences, but by whether it delivers reliable energy, cleaner communities, transparent contracts and value for residents. For cities under financial strain, the stakes are high: a failed partnership can deepen public distrust, while a successful one can create a template for financing essential infrastructure without placing the full burden on taxpayers.
Technology as a weapon against revenue leakage
The minister also placed technology at the centre of Zimbabwe’s campaign to reduce non-revenue water and improve municipal billing.
He said Harare had integrated prepaid water meters into its Geographic Information System database, while Bulawayo was using GIS to track assets and improve revenue mapping. Other local authorities, he said, were carrying out GIS audits to identify illegal structures and unbilled connections.
These systems are intended to close the gap between services delivered and money collected—a gap that has weakened the finances of many municipalities and left councils struggling to maintain their networks.
But technology alone will not solve the problem. Smart meters and digital maps can identify leakage, yet only accountable institutions can ensure that the resulting revenue is properly collected, protected and converted into better services.
Harare is also deploying technology in urban transport through an AI-powered Smart Traffic Management System using smart poles and cameras. The system is designed to optimise traffic signals, improve road safety, automate fines and reduce cash leakages.
If properly governed, such systems could make cities more efficient and less vulnerable to revenue losses. If poorly supervised, they risk becoming expensive digital showcases that do little to improve the daily lives of commuters and residents.
Garwe said Zimbabwe was diversifying municipal financing beyond the national fiscus through updated public-private partnership guidelines, standardised processes, strict implementation timelines and a 30 percent State equity component.
The country is also pursuing blended-financing arrangements, including the use of land in lieu of cash, supported by new valuation policies. Major cities are preparing to access domestic capital markets through municipal bonds, with preparations involving the Financial Securities Exchange and the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
Municipal bonds could provide councils with a new route to finance water, transport, waste and energy projects. But access to capital markets will depend on more than ambition. Investors will demand credible financial statements, predictable revenue streams, enforceable contracts and confidence that councils can meet their obligations.
In other words, financial innovation cannot substitute for institutional discipline. Cities will not become investment-ready simply because new financing instruments exist; they must first demonstrate that they can plan responsibly, procure transparently and account for every dollar raised.
Garwe said regional cooperation would be critical if African cities were to achieve the economies of scale needed to attract serious investment.
He called for the harmonisation of data standards, procurement approaches and municipal-financing instruments to reduce costs and make urban infrastructure projects more attractive to investors.
“Zimbabwe stands ready to share lessons from the Pomona waste-to-energy project, from GIS-based revenue assurance, and from our municipal bond preparation process,” he said.
He added that Zimbabwe also sought to learn from regional best practices in capital markets and credit enhancement.
The logic is compelling. African cities face many of the same pressures—rapid population growth, strained water systems, traffic congestion, unmanaged waste and inadequate energy infrastructure. Yet they often attempt to solve these problems in isolation, with fragmented data, duplicated procurement systems and financing models too small to attract long-term capital.
Shared standards and regional learning could lower those barriers. However, cooperation will deliver results only if it is matched by political honesty about failed projects, weak oversight and the institutional reforms required to make public investment work.
Garwe identified three pillars of financially sustainable cities: revenue-generating assets, performance-driven contracts and governance systems that enforce accountability.
That final pillar may prove the most important. Revenue-generating infrastructure cannot become a licence for opaque deals, uncontrolled tariffs or private gain at public expense. Performance-based contracts must contain enforceable obligations, while governance systems must be strong enough to sanction failure.
“Let this dialogue commit us to invest in infrastructure that pays for itself, to measure and enforce performance, and to collaborate regionally so that our cities become the engines of Africa’s prosperity,” Garwe said.
The challenge now is to move from compelling speeches to verifiable delivery. Zimbabwe’s cities need water that flows, roads that are maintained, waste that is safely managed and public transport that works. They need councils that can collect revenue without alienating residents and spend it without inviting suspicion.
Financial self-reliance, properly understood, is not merely about making councils richer. It is about giving cities the capacity to serve their residents with dignity—and giving the public the information and oversight needed to ensure that every revenue-generating project serves the common good.
For Zimbabwe’s municipalities, the era of waiting for rescue may be ending. The more difficult question is whether they are prepared to earn the public trust required to finance their own future.
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