STAFF REPORTER
Harare City council faces a myriad of failures and refuse collection is one of them.
Desperate residents, tired of waiting for garbage collection, have resorted to other means of clearing rubbish from their yards but the option they take has proven to have dire consequences and adds up to a growing list of council failures to address service delivery issues.
Refuse has become the order of the day in suburbs and the city centre, raising fears of diseases especially coming at a time the city is struggling to deal with perennial water crisis that has now led to waterborne diseases.
Fear of a repeat of the 2008 cholera outbreak that claimed lives is now abound. And it is scary.
A snap survey by Business Times across the city shows that residents have resorted to other means to “clean” their environs, outside the expected intervention of the City of Harare that has come up with excuses in their glaring failure to address the service delivery issues in the city.
In Warren Park suburb, a stone throw from the National Heroes Acre where the country’s national heroes are laid to rest, garbage is the order of the day particularly at the main shopping centre where it has taken up more space than facilities built to provide shed to commuters.
Desperate measures
Residents say they have now resorted to dumping rubbish anywhere they deem necessary and these include every available open space in communities.
This has led to pollution but even worse, many have resorted to burning rubbish at night, again polluting the air.
This is so in different other areas in the capital city including the central business district where garbage has taken over the beauty of several bus termini.
Copacabana is one such place and the city fathers do not seem to care enough.
Others are dumping rubbish clogging the drainage system in the process and with the rains, the roads have become messy.
Mayor Jacob Mafume has tried to lead his councillors, two from Zanu PF, others from his Citizens Coalition for Change and some from the MDC-T into service delivery provision but there is nothing to show for now.
Blame Game
Mafume and his councillors have resorted to blaming residents, government and the corporate world for not paying to ensure services are provided while the residents insist they would rather not pay any dime for nothing. Harare is owed ZWL$61bn by residents, business and the government.
Failure by the local authority to collect refuse has worsened an already desperate situation. Harare has for years failed to provide potable water to over two million residents within Greater Harare.
No services no payment
Residents have vowed not to pay for services not rendered and the attitude will likely worsen the already desperate situation.
“40% of residents are paying but the government has huge debts and they are not paying. They are not paying for services,” Mafume said recently.
Combined Harare Residents Association’s Reuben Akili said: “If there are no services, it is hard for the residents to pay the bills. It is a serious issue that the local authority should deal with. It is playing with numbers and their city Treasury Department.”
