Town clerk assumes waste management duties

Management Mr Dombo Chibanda.
Mr Chibanda was briefly suspended in December only to be called back after an outcry by councillors who felt he was being victimised and that he was working without the necessary tools.

The town clerk says he has roped in the Zimbabwe National Army to assist in refuse collection.
Under his stewardship, the city has been divided into eight zones with each zone manned by a director or deputy director with effect from last week.

The zoning programme would be finalised today.
Dr Mahachi confirmed the development yesterday.
He said he would hand over the department to Mr Chibanda when the “city is clean”.
“A crisis is handled at the highest level. I am just doing that. We have created eight zones in the city.

Each team leader is a director or a grade four. That leader will manage the zone and its assets,” he said.

All the garbage collection plant and equipment has been transferred to the engineering department under Engineer Philip Pfukwa.

The city has 32 operational refuse trucks, including the 12 that it recently acquired from Paza Basta.
The supplier is expected to deliver another 10 this monthend and another five in February.
Dr Mahachi said four other trucks were being repaired.

“We are also coming up with a new collection programme. Garbage from each suburb would be collected once a week with the exception of Mbare where collections are twice a day,” he said.
The team leaders would meet Dr Mahachi every morning for briefing.

“We are in crisis mode. This is a crisis management team we have put in place. We want to ensure that collections are sustained,” he said.
He said the army had agreed to assist.

“Once we have finished cleaning up the city we will hand over the duties to Mr Chibanda and his team. I will hand over a clean city to them,” he said.

In each zone there are various wards. Each ward is entitled to a vehicle. There would be one roving truck that would go to areas of most need.

“When all the vehicles are in place, there would be 47 vehicles. We have 46 wards,” he said.
Harare residents, especially those from high-density suburbs, are complaining over uncollected garbage.

Some of the refuse dumps have gone uncollected for over six months.
Officials from the department have resorted to burning garbage, especially in the city centre polluting the environment and causing health problems to people with respiratory and cardiovascular conditions.