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Gibson Mhaka
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) wants building owners along corridors used by vendors for waste disposal to be held accountable for waste deposited on their sanitary lanes as part of efforts to maintain cleanliness in the city.
This comes at a time when the Bulawayo city fathers have expressed concern over litter bugs in the central business district (CBD), saying the city was now littered with garbage.
Bulawayo has been touted as the cleanest city in the country, but latest council reports say refuse collection was not being carried out effectively.
According to the latest council minutes, Ward 10 Councillor Khalazani Ndlovu recommended that the health services committee implement measures to promote and maintain cleanliness within the city. “Councillor K. Ndlovu appreciated the pegging of parking bays and indicated that it had helped in keeping the streets clean.
However, she recommended that the Committee implements measures to promote and maintain cleanliness within the City. She also recommended involving TTI (Tendy Three Investments) and the Roads Department to ensure proper management of certain roads that had been rendered inaccessible by the presence of illegal vendors. “Illegal vendors were depositing waste on those roads.
She also concurred with Councillor A. R. Moyo (Ward 2 Adrian Moyo) on engaging the owners of the buildings to control garbage deposition on illegal places. She also highlighted that fine tickets should be given to building owners. She advised the Committee to come up with strong ways to solve the issue.
She stated that the Committee should engage shop owners/building owners along the corridors where vendors deposited their waste,” partly reads the minutes. She further enquired on garbage collection in Hlalani kuhle Cowdray Park indicating that the garbage was not being collected in the area.
Cllr Moyo noted that the local authority was faced with enforcement challenges. “He indicated that the Council had formulated by-laws but they were not being enforced. He advised the Committee to activate all relevant sections to make sure sanitary lanes were kept clean.
He indicated that building owners should be engaged because they were allowing vendors to deposit waste on their sanitary lanes. He highlighted that building owners should be held accountable for waste deposited on their sanitary lanes,” the minutes read.
Cllr Moyo further indicated that illegal vendors had resumed operations and the responsible municipal police were not efficiently executing their duties. “He echoed on the sentiments raised by Councillor K. Ndlovu by proposing that the matter pertaining to the Hlalani Kuhle Cowdray Park area be taken to the General Purposes and the Environmental Management and Engineering Services Committees to conduct a fact finding mission on the inaccessibility of the area.
The Committees would then produce a report that would be brought back to the Committee for decision making”. In response to the issue of refuse removal in sanitary lanes, the City Legal Officer explained that littering was associated with vending. “There was a need to engage other stakeholders in order to bring sanity into the city. This required intervention of the state. With regards to fines, she said that these were not random figures. Fines went up to Level 3 which was US$30.
She further explained that the gazetting of by-laws had been put on halt. She also advised against issuing tickets to building owners as they were also trying to get rid of the illegal vendors,” read the minutes.
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