Gweru residents stuck with uncollected garbage
By Dumisani Ndlovu
Residents in Ascot suburb, Ward 8 are contemplating dumping uncollected rubbish at the city council offices, claiming have gone for almost a month without collection.
While some have resorted to dumping refuse at nearby bushy areas and bridges, some disgusted residents who spoke to Kwedu News are planning to engage private refuse collectors.
“This council has proven beyond doubt that they have failed. We are now almost one and half months of uncollected rubbish. We as residents we are planning to mobilise each other to go and dump the refuse at their offices, so that they know what we are going through. The stenchy smell and buzzing flies are not a thing to smile on. It’s a horrible situation which if not addressed will cause cholera like what is now happening in Harare,” said one resident only identified himself as Chitofu.
Isacc Gore have threatened to sue Gweru City Council and seek Court order to compel the local authority to collect refuse and clear all dumpsites that have accumulated in and around the Gweru’s oldest suburb.
“I think we its high time the central government intervene and bail-out residents from the faced ticking health time-bomb,” said Gore.
Speaking to Kwedu News, the residents who live in areas of Ascot, Mtapa and Mambo said if they happen to exhaust all possible avenues, they will reach out to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights for help.
“Its very unfair, as faithful ratepayers, we are affected by the non-collection of refuse and yet the City of Gweru still charges us for garbage collection,” said Berry Muchirahohwa.
The residents – Japhet Tambudza, Solomon Gudza and Spine Guva – stated that refuse collection has become erratic in the capital city, and they are now providing refuse bins for themselves and yet they used to receive them from City of Gweru.
They said due to the non-collection of refuse, residents had resorted to dumping garbage in their suburbs which is piling up in huge refuse dumps.
The residents argued that the city is unjustly enriching itself at their expense by continuing to demand payments for collection of refuse while neglecting to remove garbage thereby infringing on their rights as provided in Section 73 of the Constitution.
As a result of the non-collection of refuse, the residents argue that they are suffering from some waterborne diseases caused by the health hazard.
Tambudza, Gudza and Guva argued that the City of Gweru has an obligation to collect refuse from their residences and to clear dumpsites that have accumulated in the suburbs, chief among them, Old Ascot shops.
As a remedy, the residents want the city to be ordered by the High Court to clear all garbage at dumpsites, to publish a refuse collection timetable in radio and newspapers and rather than on its social media platforms and to collect it in accordance with the timetable it would have published.
Questions sent to the City’s Public Relations Officer, Vimbai Chingwaramusee were not responded at by the time of posting.
Contacted for comment, local Councillor, Notal Dzika expressed ignorance about the situation in the area, he however promised to revert to this reporter once he got solid information.
Thirty minutes later Cllr Dzika forwarded messages from Director of Health Services, Mr Samson. Sekenhamo admitting the problem which he said emanated from grounded refuse trucks.
The message ready “C2 back on the Road but not perfect, Nezuro yakatotakura one bin ku Senga ikatozoramba kutadza kusimudza ma bin ikadzokera zve kugarage vakazoibudisa manheru so hatisati taona nhasi ini performer sei,’’ (Yesterday the refuse truck went to Senga to collect refuse, it could not manage picking the skip bin due to yet another technical faulty and was sent back to the garage. They finished fixed it in the evening; I hope it is going to perform well, “read the message.
On his purported message, Director Sekenhamo however argued on the one-month duration of uncollected refuse mentioned by residents, saying the time was exaggerated.
‘A month may not be true remember we cleared all skip bins 2 weeks ago using front end loader and tipper,”, “read his message.
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