3-mob.com 
For a capital city, Harare’s tendency to pretty shut down early is a laugh.
The Central Business District (CBD) becomes a ghosttown, home to those in transit and goons searching for someone to mug. Add to that drug peddlers and the works.
It doesn’t help that it is dark and the City Council has either lost the capacity or has no interest in improving it. Thus the reason why there is nothing drawing it.
There are no shops open until late, and if you rent an office in a building, a lot of the times the owners will kick you out at 5pm or if you are lucky, at 7pm.
There are really no decent restaurants left, nor are there any proper night spots for entertainment. So again, of course, everyone disappears.
And with the before-mentioned curfew by landlords, you couldn’t set that up if you wanted to. Of course they would charge you an arm and a leg for buildings which are largely empty.
And yet, as power cuts are rife elsewhere, it is often the least affected. it has just become the least fashionable.
Enter Joina City. And this is a curious one. Because they have stated their intention of becoming the first mall to operate 24 hours, 7 days a week.
And before we speak about this, we have to put this out there. We were at an event on the 12th floor earlier this month and when we were leaving at 10pm, the mall was shut down. Our only exit was through the basement where cars exit.
This was 10pm on a Thursday.
In a letter to stakeholders, the third-highest buildings said, “In a move to increase sales, we would like to encourage all tenants to participate in extended shopping hours for the mall. Our target is for Joina City to be the first 24hr shopping mall in Zimbabwe,” read the statement.
“We currently have tenants who are operating through the night in the Office Tower, and we would like our retail section to participate too.
“For a start we will open the mall until 2200hrs effective 25 November 2022, and we are ready to adjust the times as per your recommendations.”
The building has so many possibilities, and could become the lifeblood of the city. It is at a point where it is close to the different veins of the City. From Jason Moyo to Julius Nyerere. It means that, even when it comes to transport it is an easy place to get to and from. It has the space to offer all sorts of amenities and modernise itself beyond being simply shops and offices.
It simply opens up Harare to more possibilities. The night-time-economy is an untapped well of opportunities. It diversifies leisure and economic activities. This also creates employment and additional revenue for the city/country, as well as boosting tourism.
It could start the rejuvenation of a city, which soils its name. After all Harare, means one who does not sleep.
For the most part, the city naps.
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