Of Deals And Urban Governance: The Case Of Pomona Waste To Energy Project In Harare, Zimbabwe

The article deploys a desktop approach to examine the Pomona Waste to Energy Project in Harare, demonstrating how corruption within urban governments disproportionately affects public service delivery. The principal secondary sources of data used are policy documents, academic literature and newspaper articles. The key problem relates to the presence of unfettered central government interference in local governance through the Minister responsible for Local Government. The article demonstrates that through the project, privatisation and subsequent forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been sanctioned. Based on the study findings, the article concludes that the design of a city-level management system, that includes democratic structures with checks and balances between the executive and legislature and between state agencies and civil society, must be supplemented by broader citizen participation to ensure that decisions are made in the best interests of the public.