Harare CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025

The Harare City Profiling Report 2025 details the challenges facing Zimbabwe's capital, characterized by rapid informal urban growth, severe infrastructure decay, and a strained relationship between the opposition-led city council and the national government. While Harare serves as the country's economic hub, it suffers from critical gaps in water, sanitation, and waste management, with a significant portion of the population living in informal settlements. The report highlights a severe fiscal crisis where the city relies almost entirely on its own limited revenue sources while facing low payment compliance and high levels of non-revenue water.

• Harare's urban expansion has been largely informal, with the built-up area increasing from 279.5km2 in 1984 to 445km2 in 2018. By 2021, the World Bank estimated that 33% of the population lived in informal settlements, and 63 neighbourhoods have been classified as 'slums'.
• The city's water supply system is in critical condition, meeting less than 40% of demand through formal treated systems. Non-revenue water reached 58% in 2024, far exceeding the African utility benchmark of 30%, due to leaks, theft, and illegal connections.
• Sanitation services are severely overloaded; in 2012, treatment plants processed only 80 megalitres per day of the 274 megalitres received. This has led to frequent sewer bursts and the contamination of water sources, contributing to cholera and typhoid outbreaks.
• Solid waste management is inefficient, with only 61% of waste collected based on 2015 data. Only 50% of the waste collection fleet is operational due to lack of maintenance funding, and landfill management is poor, with only one site compacting and covering waste.
• Electricity supply is unreliable with frequent load-shedding, often from 6 am to 6 pm. While 88% of households had access as of 2019, the sector is hampered by low tariffs and high debts owed to regional suppliers like Eskom and Hydro Cahora Bassa.
• Harare's road network is in a state of disaster, with over 87% requiring rehabilitation. Only 15% of the total road length is paved, and the city struggles to secure the estimated USD 250 million per year needed to revamp 250 km of roads annually.
• The city's economy is a major national driver, contributing an estimated 40% to Zimbabwe's GDP, though per capita GDP remained static at about US$2,900 between 2015 and 2020. The unemployment rate was reported at 24% in 2025, though citizen surveys suggest it could be as high as 43%.
• Governance is characterized by political conflict between the opposition-led Harare City Council (CCC) and the ZANU-PF national government. This results in extreme fiscal centralisation, with intergovernmental transfers making up only 1% of the city's operating revenue.
• The city's 2025 revenue budget relies almost entirely on 'own source' revenue (99%), with property rates contributing 48% and trading services (water, wastewater, and waste management) contributing 34%. However, actual revenue collection averaged only 40% in the first three quarters of 2024/25.

APA

Ohamadike, N. (2025). Harare CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025. Good Governance Africa. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Harare-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf

Chicago

Ohamadike, Nnaemeka. Harare CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025. Good Governance Africa, 2025. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Harare-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ohamadike |first1=Nnaemeka |title=Harare CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025 |publisher=Good Governance Africa |date=2025 |url=https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Harare-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ohamadike2025harare, author = {Ohamadike, Nnaemeka}, title = {{Harare CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025}}, institution = {Good Governance Africa}, year = {2025}, url = {https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Harare-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }