tawandamusarurwa
Sunday Mail Reporter
THE Harare City Council will soon begin towing away abandoned vehicles from open spaces, road verges and car parks in the city centre and some suburbs for disposal through auction.
Town House is also mulling revoking operating licences and imposing hefty fines on companies that place rubbish bins in areas that are inaccessible to refuse collection trucks.
In addition, vendors will be levied heavy penalties for failure to properly dispose of garbage in places they operate from.
Council spokesperson Mr Innocent Ruwende said council will invoke Harare’s By-law Number 30 of 2016 to operationalise a city-wide anti-litter blitz.
The by-law makes it an offence to “fail to pick up litter, which, in the exercise of duties, has fallen in any public place”.
It also makes failure to provide an “adequate number of bins in and around your area of business” an offence.
Mr Ruwende said the city will “rigorously escalate” its efforts to enforce the anti-litter by-law.
Added Mr Ruwende:
“Vehicle shells parked in the central business district and car parks throughout the city will be disposed of in terms of the Harare anti-litter by-law.
Council recently launched “Operation Chenesa Harare”, which it has touted as a community-based waste management initiative.
Harare Residents Trust executive director Mr Precious Shumba said Town House has failed to fulfil its waste management mandate despite collecting rates for the service from residents.
“Refuse collection is erratic throughout high-density suburbs,” said Mr Shumba.
“Council officials and councillors have always explained that this situation was due to broken down refuse collection vehicles and shortages of diesel.
“There is need to ring-fence refuse collection revenue so that it can be used to provide consistent service.”
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter