Online Reporter
. . . He says he won’t just watch as First Street is turned into an outdoor public toilet
Talent Gore
HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume says there are people who have turned FIRST STREET into their home where they live, sleep and, in some cases, use as their makeshift public toilet.
He says their days are numbered and the City Council could revive vagrancy laws to deal with these people who are not only found in First Street but throughout the CBD.
Mafume said efforts by authorities to reclaim the capital’s streets will be intensified.
He said the proposed changes to the city’s by-laws would target people who have turned parts of the CBD, including First Street, into makeshift homes.
Speaking on Star FM’s ‘Muriro on Monday’ programme, Mafume said authorities had encountered people sleeping on the streets under cardboard boxes.
He said the situation had reached a point where people were effectively living in the CBD, while some were also engaging in activities such as drug dealing and open defecation.
“We are going to change our laws, looking back at laws like the vagrant laws,” Mafume said.
“When we were walking in First Street, we almost lifted one of the street people thinking it was a heap of garbage, only to discover that it was a living human being sleeping under cardboard boxes.
“Right in the middle of First Street there are people who just come and live in the CBD.
“It’s not going to continue happening.”
Mafume also raised concerns over sanitation, saying some parts of the CBD had effectively become public toilets.
“People are literally living in the city, relieving themselves anyhow.
“Our streets have become toilets. We cannot allow that to continue,” he said.
His comments come as the Government and Council push ahead with Operation Chenesa Harare, which is targeting illegal vending and the occupation of undesignated public spaces.
The City says vendors operating in the CBD should move to designated trading areas, while municipal police are being deployed to prevent cleared areas from being reoccupied.
Mafume said the vending problem could not be viewed in isolation, arguing that uncontrolled trading, blocked roads and a lack of adequate toilet facilities were contributing to wider sanitation and public-order problems.
He, however, stressed that not all vendors were responsible for the problems being addressed.
“Not that all vendors are causing that, but if you are all over and there are no toilet facilities, you are blocking the roads, the whole set-up then becomes untenable,” he said.
Mafume said the proposed legal changes would form part of a broader transformation of Harare as authorities seek to establish a smart city.
“We cannot put lipstick on a frog and call it beautiful.
“We need to change the whole aspect of the city.
“We are trying to make this city attain its smart city status, not only smart in terms of its presentability, even its people,” he said.
