Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
Harare councillors observed a minute of silence for two City of Harare employees who died last week while on duty, and long-serving doctor, the head of the council’s dental unit, Dr Ebenezar Ngwenyama, at the end of the full council agenda today.
This was followed by a prayer by Ward 17 Harare Councillor Happymore Gotora.
“We lost two workers due to work–related issues,” said Harare mayor Cllr Jacob Mafume. “These were very senior workers who had worked for the council for a long time in terms of years.The water department and the whole council were thrown into mourning.
“The work we do requires that we have and avail safety gear, and we should not enter into areas without that safety gear.”
Cllr Mafume said investigations are being conducted.
“I have seen some preliminary reports but we need to make sure that our policy is intact and we need to modernise the place, we need CCTV and other gadgets that are no longer expensive, so that we monitor the work,” he said.
“The supervisors need to work with some of the workers and avoid situations where someone says goodbye to their family and they cannot go back to their family because of a work-related incident. We want the departments to cooperate.”
Cllr Mafume said the city is also concerned with the availability of protective gear.
“It should not be an issue; it should be available at all times. Our agreement with the workers says that by the second of January of every year, each employee should have the gear that they should be using at their workplace, depending on the degree of hazards,” he said.
“And we need to get to the bottom of the issue and make sure that all the things that need to be done are done, protective gear is bought, and the accompanying equipment is available.”
Cllr Mafume said he has spoken to the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ), which has expressed its readiness to approve any emergency requests, especially for protective gear.
He said the death of Dr Ngwenyama was not work-related.
“We were plunged again into mourning, a very experienced dentist, fell sick unexpectedly and died at work.”
