Online Reporter
Mkhululi Ncube, [email protected]
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has ordered urgent action to end the long-running Ngozi Mine pollution crisis in Bulawayo after growing concern over the health and safety of thousands of residents affected by recurring smoke and fumes from Richmond Landfill, directing the city council and Geo
Pomona Waste Management to conclude an agreement within a week to replicate Harare’s waste management model.
The intervention follows years of complaints from residents in Cowdray Park, Emakhandeni and Luveve, who have endured smoke and foul-smelling fumes from recurring fires at the landfill, amid fears over the impact on public health.
Residents have complained of struggling to breathe when smoke settles over their neighbourhoods, with some saying the fumes have affected children and elderly people.
In some cases, families have temporarily relocated relatives suffering from respiratory conditions to other suburbs when the pollution became severe.
The situation was described as a matter of life and death by Bulawayo Mayor Councillor David Coltart last year, with residents continuing to demand urgent action.
The landfill has been plagued by recurring fires, with smoke often hanging over surrounding communities for days. Complaints over the pollution stretch back several years, with residents accusing authorities of failing to find a lasting solution.
Against this background, President Mnangagwa has directed Government to intervene, with Dr Garwe saying the continued pollution had become a matter of serious concern at the highest level.
Addressing a meeting attended by Government officials, Bulawayo City Council representatives and Geo Pomona Waste Management executive chairman and Special Advisor to the President on
Waste Management and Environmental Sustainability, Dr Dilesh Nguwaya, Minister Garwe said the President wanted the matter resolved immediately.
“We came here with clear instructions from my principal that the Ngozi Mine situation is now of great concern to the President and solutions must be provided now,” he told the meeting at City Hall offices.
“What is of concern now is the existence of irregularity, the existence of disorderliness, the existence of lack of cleanliness in all of Bulawayo and the existence of Ngozi Mine, which is now polluting the air,” said Dr Garwe.
“In this beautiful City of Kings and Queens, we have had several meetings to replicate exactly what is happening in Harare in terms of waste collection and waste management, and we want to deliver value chain to all other cities, and we said our next station is the City of Bulawayo.”
Minister Garwe said Government had identified Geo Pomona as a tried and tested waste management model and saw no reason to delay its replication in Bulawayo. He said the Harare project had transformed a former dumpsite into a modern waste management and processing facility, with additional developments introduced at the site.
“We said to the stakeholders that they are a tried and tested institution in terms of waste management,” he said.
“I was speaking with the mayor in the morning during the briefing, and I said what used to be a common dumpsite is now home to beautiful football grounds, is now home to a world-class restaurant, is now home to a waste management processing plant and is now going to be home to a medical waste processing plant, among many others,” said Minister Garwe.
“We said if the ball is round, we have no reason to want to redesign it. It’s already round. What we can only do is to play.”
For Government, Dr Garwe said the priority was no longer extended discussions but ending the pollution affecting residents.
“The objective is to ensure that Ngozi Mine will not continue to pollute the City of Bulawayo, and what is it that we need to do so that that is stopped,” he said.
“We engage professional companies that can come and deal with Ngozi Mine without any further delays. We must do that with the clear understanding that Ngozi Mine has caused a lot of health hazards, some of them not yet detected, to the population in this beautiful city.”
While authorities were free to undertake feasibility studies, Dr Garwe said Central Government had already resolved to proceed with engaging a company capable of addressing the crisis.
“You can go ahead and get the feasibility study, but in central Government we are telling you now, unequivocally, we are going ahead, ensuring that we engage the company to do the work,” he said.
Government has also said it will not allow procedural issues involving the Zimbabwe Investment
and Development Agency (ZIDA) to delay intervention.
“Solutions will not come from ZIDA, but us, and ZIDA will provide advice to what we want to achieve,” said Minister Garwe.
“We will not be bogged down by ZIDA, we have demanded that the feasibility study be carried out for us to be able to go ahead and engage either Geo Pomona or whoever, in this case its Geo Pomona.”
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He said Cabinet had already set a precedent by approving a private waste management project in
Harare and there was no reason for Bulawayo to resist adoption of the model.
“There is a precedent in terms of the law that has been set, that Cabinet made a decision that a private project be implemented in the city of Harare,” he said.
“Once that private project has become successful, we replicate it here with no authority whatsoever to resist a Cabinet decision. Please take note.”
Minister Garwe warned that if the local authority failed to implement the directive, Central
Government would step in to ensure the project proceeded.
“If it becomes difficult for your town clerk to implement the directive I am giving now, that directive
will be implemented from Central Government and we’ll just give you your position and you move forward,” he said.
“Mr Mayor, we are engaging Geo Pomona. If you cannot, you tell us right away and we’ll do it and move forward. We don’t want to continue wasting time. I told you earlier that we came here to make decisions and positive decisions, not to be moving around in circles as if we don’t understand what we are doing.”
Minister Garwe said the meeting had been convened to make decisions rather than engage in political contestation or prolonged debate over procedures.
On the way forward, the minister directed council officials and Government representatives to finalise the agreement with Geo Pomona within a week.
“I want to see the memorandum of agreement next week for signature,” said Minister Garwe.
For residents who have lived with the pollution for years, the Presidential directive raises hopes that the recurring smoke and fumes from Ngozi Mine may finally be brought to an end.
The intervention also signals a shift from years of complaints and calls for action to a Government-led push for a permanent solution to a crisis increasingly viewed as a public health, environmental and human security issue in Bulawayo.
