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Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent
THE Government has directed the Harare City Council to convene a meeting with relevant stakeholders by the end of the day today after the local authority confiscated 31 mobile toilets from the Zimbabwe Mobile Sanitation Association (ZMSA) which had been providing alternative ablution facilities in the capital.
This comes after residents questioned the rationale behind council’s seizure of the toilets at a time the capital is battling a cholera outbreak.
After noting that there was a shortage of ablution facilities in the capital, ZMSA approached council with a proposal to introduce mobile toilets to bridge the gap in ablution facilities and to prevent the continued spread of cholera in the city.
Council was initially amenable to the idea but later deployed its employees to remove the mobile toilets, prompting ZMSA to approach central Government for recourse.
In a letter addressed to the town clerk Engineer Hosea Chisango dated January 24, 2024, the Permanent Secretary for Local Government and Public Works Ms Khonzani Ncube said council and ZMSA should engage on the provision of adequate toilets in the city.
“It has been brought to the attention of the Ministry that your local authority has confiscated 31 mobile toilets belonging to Zimbabwe Mobile Sanitation Association,” she said.
“The organisation has raised concern that this is frustrating to its efforts to augment the local authority’s provision of public toilets that are constrained.
“The organisation also cites that they have an agreement with the city to provide the service and the agreement was not officially terminated.
“Could you organise a meeting with the association by 30 January 2024 to find how you can cooperate and resolve the dispute? Please furnish the undersigned with a copy of the minutes of your meeting.”
Despite a serious shortage of public toilets in the city centre, council officials have reportedly been harassing private concerns complementing their efforts.
Only a handful of council toilets are usable with the majority either blocked or lacking running water.
The mobile toilets had been placed in busy spots including busy pick-up points for travellers such as the Harare Exhibition Park and the Civic Centre car park off Gamal Abdel Nasser Road.
Some of the areas that require mobile toilets in the city centre include the former Ximex Mall, where illegal foreign currency dealers are relieving themselves on the streets, posing a serious health hazard.
Other local authorities including Beitbridge and Chinhoyi have embraced mobile toilets which are spreading to every province.
Residents and city hawkers yesterday raised concern over the removal of mobile toilets.
“Council is failing to maintain their toilets but is busy grabbing the ones which are usable. It is better to pay a paltry fee and use a reliable toilet than accessing council facilities. Government should intervene,” said Mrs Anesu Chirwa, a vendor operating from Simon Muzenda Bus Terminus.
A resident Ms Tendai Kondo also said closure of complementary ablution facilities was insensitive.
“We are in the middle of a cholera crisis and someone is grabbing toilets. That is shameful. This will obviously lead to open defecation posing a health hazard.
ZMSA president Mr Boston Muteya said they were facilitating the placement of the toilets at busy spots.
“The purpose of the programme is to reduce issues of open defecation.
“We are targeting all crowded areas without ablution facilities like markets, truck stop overs and bus stations, among others. We are also creating employment in the process.
“We are not taking over council business, but complementing as part of creating a clean city,” said Mr Muteya
Mr Muteya said they were also complementing areas with existing toilets, but failing to cope up with the demand such as Simon Muzenda bus terminus, formerly Fourth Street.
“There are instances where public toilets will be clogged which has become the norm and we then complement them with our mobile toilets,” he said.
Harare City Council spokesperson, Mr Stanley Gama said: “We removed those toilets through operation Chenesa because they were illegal.
“City council is planning to build more toilets so it can cater for the huge numbers of people in the central business district.”
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