BREAKING NEWS
..As Council is blamed for Negligence and rundown of Essential services
….You can also watch the file pictures on our website
By Delicious Mathuthu
A dark cloud has engulfed the City of Gweru following the death of two employees on Wednesday (6 November 2024) who suffocated to death while trying to unblock a sewer line without adequate protective clothing in one of the local suburbs.
The deceased, who are yet to be identified as their next of kin were yet to be informed by the time of publishing, succumbed to toxic gases suffocation while attempting to unblock a sewer line in Athlone suburb.
Gweru City Council (GCC) confirmed how the employees died, and extended condolences to the families pledging a thorough investigation to prevent future tragedies.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the tragic loss of two Gweru City employees who passed away whilst they were on duty in Athlone.
“The incident occurred when they were working on a manhole and unfortunately they succumbed to gas suffocation.
“Our thoughts and condolences go to the families, colleagues and loved ones of the deceased,” GCC Public Relations Officer, Vimbai Chingwaramsee said.
“The local authority values the lives of the employees and residents and we take the safety of our workers very seriously and hence forth we will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident to ensure that measures are put in place to prevent such tragedy from occurring in the future.
“We really appreciate understanding and support during this difficult time,” she added.
The promise, however, has been brushed by employee and residents representatives who say the local authority has a history of employee neglect and improper grading.
Sources within the local authority said the deceased were general-hand employees tasked with duties meant for plumbers, and paid as general hand workers.
More so, the city has been operating without a Health Safety Officer.
A former GCC employee testified to the employee and health safety protocol neglect.
“When it comes to safety clothing they don’t really care, and with the health hazards which they face you find that these people were not even having respirators.
“Imagine they say gas suffocation but if they were wearing the required respirators such things could have been avoided.
“If you really look at it, there is a person who is untrained working there, even just induction they would not have done. If we say gas suffocation, it means that they had nothing to protect themselves with,” he said.
“This is negligence, and this negligence is not on workers, we are not blaming the workers but the department, the management and the City Council in general on such things.
“How painful is it that a parent goes to work, a brother or sister, and dies in such a manner,” he added.
GCC Workers Committee Chairperson, also under the Zimbabwe Urban Councils Workers Union flagship, Bhekiwe Jongwe, said the local authority does not take employee safety seriously.
“These people were sacrificing a lot doing their work but were getting nothing.
“First looking at their safety, it was not enough, they did not have enough uniforms or protective clothing, and even their salaries were not paid yet but they were sacrificing and the council didn’t care.
“The job that they were doing is supposed to be done by people with higher grades but they were sacrificing to do it but council didn’t care,” he said.
“If employees are working they should be paid their dues, as we speak some have died without being paid their salaries. Council should appreciate the effort that employees put in.
“Safety clothing should be available everywhere where it’s needed,” Jongwe advised.
This is not the first time GCC council employees have lost lives while on duty with a previous incident where three employees met their demise in a road traffic accident while sent to recover a vehicle from a former Director in Harare.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) Executive Director, Cornilia Selipiwe, also questioned the commitment of the local authority to employee protection.
“This is very sad and this is not the first time that we have seen GCC council employees dying on duty. Last time we had three employees that died on duty and this time around we now have two.
“Then the question is, are we really taking people’s lives seriously, are we taking the precautionary measures that we are supposed to undertake whenever we are doing something,” he questioned.
“I think further interrogation, further research or investigations in and around the issue should be done to see whether these council employees had protective clothing because we can’t allow this, we can’t, we can’t afford this.
“One of the things is, don’t we have safety measures that are supposed to be followed, what is it that you are supposed to do when you are getting into a sewer main line.
“It’s common knowledge that these sewer mainlines contain gasses that are very dangerous and today we are mourning the passing on of these two people, these two great employees and heroes of Gweru because they were actually doing us a service as residents, attending to a sewer blockage which is very key and paramount to our health as the generality of Gweru citizenry.
“Now the question is do we have enough protective clothing, do we have an employee at GCC who deals with safety issues for these employees or they were just working,” said Selipiwe.
He said some kind of compensation has to be given to the deceased’s families and residents are saddened, deeply worried and deeply concerned by the incident.
A similar incident occurred in the city of Kadoma where one employee died and two others were left hospitalized after inhaling gas from a sewer manhole.
In the incident, one Godfrey Kawocho died in the line of duty while trying to rescue one of his colleagues in a manhole with toxic gases.
The other employees, Kasim Saidi, was left with visible disorientation, loss of motor skills and memory lapse episodes while Julius Smoko had on and off relapses of diarrheal like symptoms, diagnosed with Typhoid at one point and were not going to work ever since.
Resultantly concerns on employee safety in urban councils have been raised as they are accused of very limited reaction and correctional measures to protect employees.
