A recent opinion piece published in The Reporter newspaper under the title “Hawassa At A Crossroads” advances a deeply flawed and politically shortsighted proposal: that Hawassa be removed from its constitutional home and placed under federal administration. Such recommendation misrepresents the city’s realities and and risks damaging its reputation at a time when stability, investor confidence, and public trust are crucial. By portraying Hawassa as a declining urban center incapable of recovery under the Sidama National Regional State, the commentary conveys misleading narrative that could inadvertently shake confidence among residents, investors, and the wider public.
Hawassa is not in fundamental crisis. It is in transition. And transitions, when managed with political maturity and constitutional fidelity, are opportunities, not indictments. It is the capital of the Sidama National Regional State, a region that emerged through constitutionally permissible referendum and embodies the federal principles upon which Ethiopia is built. To suggest that the city cannot thrive within this framework is, in effect, to cast doubt on the viability of regional self-administration itself.
The path forward lies in consolidation, cooperation, and confidence.
The city stands as a peaceful and strategically positioned regional capital, well equipped to address its transitional governance challenges through institutional reform, responsible leadership, and enhanced accountability all within the bounds of the existing constitutional framework. Solutions framed around federalization, driven by pessimistic assumptions, risk diverting attention from the constructive steps already underway.
Responsible, forward-looking political discourse should therefore prioritize institutional reinforcement and fidelity to the constitutional order as the most sustainable path to urban growth, stability, and renewed confidence.
Hawassa city was founded nearly 70 years ago on communal land belonging to the Sidama people, displacing thousands of Sidama households from their ancestral lands. Over time, the city has continued to grow both geographically and demographically, often at the expense of surrounding rural communities whose estates were incorporated into the urban area.
Despite this painful history of displacement, Hawassa remains deeply intertwined with Sidama culture, values, heritage, and identity. The language, cultural traditions, customary institutions, and social life of the Sidama people continue to influence the character of the city and daily life, making Hawassa not just an administrative or economic hub, but a vibrant cultural center whose roots and development are closely tied to the history and heritage of the Sidama nation.
Today, Hawassa city is one of the fastest-growing urban centers in the country, distinguished by its scenic lake, surrounding hills, thoughtfully designed road networks, and vibrant, welcoming communities.
There is no doubt that Hawassa’s vibrancy has varied in recent years. However, blaming this entirely on its status as the capital of Sidama Regional State overly simplifies the issue that obscures the reality at hand. The temporary slowdown stems from identifiable governance gaps, periodic road closures that disrupted commercial activity, short-term declines in tourism and visitor flows, and wider national economic headwinds. These are management issues, not inherent constitutional flaws. Cities across the country have faced similar challenges without calls for federal intervention.
Structural reclassification does not automatically fix weak administration; effective leadership and strong institutional accountability are needed. It is also important to recognize that Hawassa remains one of Ethiopia’s most peaceful urban centers.
During a period of fragile stability across much of the country, Hawassa has maintained social cohesion. Its diverse communities coexist in harmony, and the city has not descended into the cycles of violent unrest seen elsewhere.
Depicting Hawassa as unstable or structurally flawed risks discouraging investment and eroding public confidence by alarmist narratives. Urban reputations are important and narratives that exaggerate decline can inflict deeper economic damage than the manageable governance challenges the city actually faces.
The city is the constitutionally recognized administrative capital of Sidama National Regional State. This status was not assigned arbitrarily; it is grounded in the federal principles of self-rule and regional autonomy that define the Ethiopian state. Removing the city from Sidama’s jurisdiction would not be a minor administrative change but a major constitutional and political shift with implications far beyond municipal boundaries.
Federalism in Ethiopia is based on decentralization and respect for regional autonomy. If governance issues become reasons for federal intervention, the core logic of the federal system starts to collapse.
Welcoming stronger presence of federal institutions is fundamentally different from relinquishing constitutional authority. If the federal government decides to relocate offices or expand its presence in Hawassa, residents would certainly appreciate the economic and administrative benefits of such move.
Cooperation between federal and regional authorities enhances efficiency, builds trust and strengthens national unity. However, cooperation must not be confused with centralization. Partnership does not require the erosion of regional jurisdiction. The suggestion that prosperity can only be achieved through direct federal control presents false and misleading choice. Sustainable development flows from coordinated governance and mutual respect not from the concentration of authority at the center.
Moreover, singling out Hawassa for such a transformation sends a negative message to the nationwide. Ethiopia is home to multiple emerging urban centers, each navigating its own mix of challenges and opportunities. Focusing on one regional capital for federal management risks creating perceptions of political imbalance and favoritism. The national urban development policy promotes balanced growth rather than re-centralization under a new guise. Sustainable urban progress requires strengthening local institutions across the board not redesignating jurisdictions in ways that may undermine federal equilibrium.
It is also important to revisit Hawassa’s earlier vibrancy with balance and historical perspective. During the former Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, Hawassa enjoyed a significant concentration of regional bureaus, public institutions, and administrative expenditure. That concentration naturally funneled public spending, employment, and infrastructure investment into the city, often at the expense of other urban centers within the vast region. If Hawassa’s previous dynamism partly reflected centralized allocation, then today’s broader distribution of opportunity across multiple cities should not be interpreted as decline.
Rather, it should be understood as more equitable recalibration, aligning development with principles of fairness and balanced regional growth.
It is also important to clarify that Hawassa had been under the administration of the Sidama Zone, except for a brief period when both the Zonal and Regional administrations jointly managed the city after the 2002 Looqe incident. Although the city served as the capital of both the former Sidama Zone and the former SNNPR regional government, it remained legally and administratively part of the Sidama Zone, sometimes enjoying special zonal status within that framework. Misrepresenting Hawassa as falling under SNNPR jurisdiction ignores the constitutional and administrative reality that defined its governance and risks distorting the historical record. Such mischaracterization not only blurs institutional facts but also risks distorting the historical and legal reality that shaped the city’s evolution.
This issue has never been a mere technicality or bureaucratic detail. On May 24, 2002, disputes surrounding Sidama self-administration demands and the decision to change the status of Hawassa city caused the tragic killing of civilians at Looqe, an event that left deep scars across the region and remains etched in collective memory. A decade later, the 2012 “metropolitan agenda,” advanced by SEPDM leadership and widely perceived as an attempt to detach Hawassa from the Sidama administration, triggered widespread protests and unrest across Sidama, reaffirming how profoundly sensitive the question of the city’s status is to the people it represents.
These episodes make one fact unmistakably clear: debates over Hawassa’s administrative position are inseparable from issues of identity, constitutional rights, and the principle of self-governance. History has already demonstrated that dismissing and underestimating these sensitivities carries serious political consequences.
Today, needless to say, it is evident that no responsible actor seeks to reopen those painful chapters or revive divisions that have already exacted a heavy cost.
Encouragingly, meaningful reforms are already underway under the leadership of Progressive and energetic Mayor Tiratu Beyene. These initiatives aim to enhance service delivery, governance challenges, improve urban planning, coordinate infrastructure development along key corridors, and promote greater transparency and accountability within city administration.
Urban transformation is never instantaneous: it takes time, requires sustained effort, disciplined governance, and a clear, long-term focus. This approach represents the responsible path for addressing the governance challenges that have affected Hawassa’s vibrancy. Cities do not become stronger through top-down constitutional reclassification; they thrive through institutional reform, capable leadership, and accountable administration. Shifting authority without building capacity addresses neither the root causes nor the long-term needs of the city.
Ultimately, the proposal to federalize Hawassa offers superficial solution to what is essentially governance challenge. Such a move risks eroding the very principles of federalism, weakening regional autonomy, and tarnishing the city’s reputation all without ensuring any meaningful improvement in administration or development. Hawassa does not require salvation from its constitutionally guaranteed status; what it needs is consistent, capable and accountable leadership, coordinated urban planning, and renewed public and investor confidence.
The solution lies in reform within the federal framework, not in retreat from it. Strengthening the systems already in place and reinforcing recent progress is the responsible and sustainable way forward, not reclassifying the city under a federal guise.
(Woldesilassie Hailemichael Chaffo is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on the intricate interplay of marketing strategies, climate change, conflicts, and environmental sustainability in fostering resilient communities. He holds an MBA from Hawassa University, where he also serves as a senior lecturer. He brings nearly two decades of experience working with both public and private institutions.)
Contributed by Woldesilassie Hailemichael Chaffo
