This paper is an expose, a review and explanation of the current situation
of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Harare is characterised by the
problem of urban primacy amid stunted economic growth. The paper
observes how, generally and notwithstanding a raft of planning and
policy interventions targeting unprecedented forces of rapid
urbanisation and population growth, Harare continues to defy moiete of
technocracy, which is scientific-based town planning practice and
expectations. Drawing heavily from various scholarship, census reports
and economic growth data, we argue that the current urbanisation trend
is unsustainable. This confounds the conventional wisdom in developed
countries where urban growth has been appropriately synchronised with
economic performance to meet the social and economic expectations of
the population. To the contrary, Harare's urban growth is in complete
antagonism to the expected norm. We pose that for Harare, this situation
has reduced it to nothing but a 'parasitic city', drawing life from sectors it
is not fending.