COMMENT: Do city fathers really care anymore?

THERE was a time when Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city was touted as the country’s best run city. However, the same cannot be said now of the City of Kings and Queens as Bulawayo is affectionately referred to. What with rot written all over this historic metropolis whose roads are littered with potholes while loads of rubbish are strewn all over the streets.

Such a scenario which is slowly becoming of how things are then leaves us wondering whether council officials ensconced in their ivory towers either at the City Hall or the nearby Tower Block really care anymore.

At times we ask ourselves whether they have the love for Bulawayo as was exhibited by the astute late former Town Clerk, Dr Mike Ndubiwa or do the current crop of councillors have the same loyalty and love to the residents of Bulawayo and the city itself as was shown by their predecessors such as the late national hero and first black Mayor, Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu, Nelson Sidanile, David Ndlovu, Arthur Lee Ncube, Alexious Sibanda and Enos Mdlongwa to just name a few. Our answer is a big NO.

We say so because the city fathers who really care about their city would not sit back and watch their city slide into oblivion. While there are so many wrongs that are happening at the Tower Block and City Hall, but one that quickly comes into mind is failure to take action and be decisive on matters that need urgent attention.

For example, we are pained by the deplorable state of our roads, which have been made worse by the current rains that are pounding the city and other parts of the country.

While a majority of the city’s roads are no longer trafficable, from our observation the worse off ones are Luveve and Plumtree roads, which are now a nightmare for motorists where there are stretches littered with potholes that have evolved into craters.

Despite the anguish motorists go through in navigating their way through those stretches of the roads, it seems no one is bothered from the side of the council as no action has been taken for a long time to carry out some repairs.

Yesterday our sister paper, Chronicle on its front page carried a story detailing the drama that is happening on the city’s roads where frustrated motorists said they were spending a lot of money in repairing their vehicles from damages sustained as a result of the poor network.

“More and more drivers are bringing their vehicles for repairs after hitting potholes and from our business side of things, we are making money.

“People are changing the suspension of their cars often because of the potholes and the poor state of the roads,” a city mechanic identified as Mdu was quoted as saying.

Then yesterday we woke up to reports that the city council would soon be working on repairing some parts of Luveve Road from Waverly Street and Intemba Drive, this is now a little too late as the road has already seen years of neglect.

Besides, the rehabilitation works only became a reality after the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Cde Felix Mhona instructed the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) to immediately release funds to the local authority to enable the rehabilitation of the road.

Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu also recently weighed in on the state of affairs in Bulawayo when he noted that the second largest city has since been reduced to a growth point with poor road infrastructure coupled with pathetic service delivery.

A couple of weeks ago Member of Parliament for Bulawayo South Constituency who is also the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Cde Raj Modi was seen filling up potholes along Lobengula Street in the Central Business District saying roads in the city needed urgent attention.

Clearly something has to give at the Tower Block and City Hall to save the city from this continuing decay.