ENVIRONMENT, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu has slammed Bulawayo City Council (BCC) for failing to take action to curb illegal activities which have resulted in the local authority failing to bring sanity in the city centre.
In the past, Bulawayo stood tall across the country as a better-organised and cleanest city in southern Africa.
From a reliable garbage collection schedule to public lighting and traffic lights maintenance, the City of Kings and Queens remained a city to reckon with.
With its clean tree-lined boulevards, recreational parks filled with plants and flowers and charming architecture, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city was the country’s smartest metropolis and a marvel to both visitors and residents.
Sadly, today, Bulawayo is a pale shadow of its former self and a decaying eyesore. The city’s dirty and crowded streets and unmanicured landscapes are no longer a delightful way to pass a few hours.
The city now resembles a beautiful space that history has all but forgotten. The city is battling to bring order and sanity in the city centre where various illegal activities are happening.
Buses have turned several parking spaces in the city centre into illegal pick-up and drop-off points, a development, which has also attracted illegal vending activities and touting resulting in congestion and chaotic scenes.
Buses park between Leopold Takawira Avenue and 6th Avenue, opposite Bulawayo Central Police Station, along Fife Street, and near Tredgold Building.
Along Leopold Takawira Avenue Extension, buses used to park adjacent to Eveline High School but the local authority has since placed bins and ropes preventing bus crews from parking there.
Instead of returning to Renkini Bus Terminus, the defiant bus crews moved further down the street and now park their buses near the Bulawayo Theatre going to the Museum.
The presence of illegal bus operators has attracted vendors who in turn, litter around Central and Centenary Parks.
Street vendors and money changers have virtually occupied all the available space on the pavement, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk in the city centre.
Illegal vending, picking and dropping of passengers at undesignated ranks, washing of cars in the streets and making of fire by people selling roasted maize are some of the illegal activities that have mushroomed in Bulawayo.
On some roads such as 6th Avenue Extension and Herbert Chitepo Street from 5th Avenue to 11th Avenue, driving during the peak hour has become nightmarish as rowdy kombi crews violate road rules causing congestion.
The streets have become no-go areas for ordinary motorists as kombi crews have turned them into mini ranks.
The ubiquitous vendors have virtually occupied all the available space creating chaotic scenes, especially along 5th Avenue between Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Jason Moyo Streets.
Last week, BCC temporarily halted its plans to embark on an operation to clear and clean the city centre of illegal activities following advice from the security and intelligence community.
Council had given illegal vendors and pushcart operators an ultimatum to vacate the city centre by January 11.
The blitz would have seen those trading on undesignated sites on the streets, pavements and roadways being chucked out, including those washing cars, repairing vehicles and private vehicles, commuter omnibuses and buses using illegal pickup points.
Others who were going to be affected included those delivering farm produce and other products onto the streets, pushcart operators, heavy commercial vehicles in the city centre which have resulted in serious congestion.
However, council had to halt the exercise on the advice of the security sector pending consultations on the programme.
Addressing BCC officials, resident associations, representatives from the transport sector and captains of industry during a meeting on environmental management in Bulawayo last Friday, Minister Ndlovu blamed BCC for allowing lawlessness on the streets, which the local authority is now struggling to contain.
“There is a need for Bulawayo City Council to tackle issues around open drinking spaces, which is rampant. You have people drinking beer in those places and leaving empty bottles strewn in the streets,” he said.
“Council should be firm when it comes to dealing with lawlessness. There is also a 24-hour bus rank at the Chicken Inn near Tredgold Building. It is a worrying trend to note that the local authority is allowing an illegal rank to flourish, which is a looming health disaster given that there are no ablution facilities.”
Minister Ndlovu challenged businesses to follow up on litter caused by their products under their extended producer responsibility (EPR).
EPR is a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility – financial and/or physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products.
“In Victoria Falls companies have adopted streets which they man all the time. Every morning, they pick litter on the streets, which they manage and this is possible in Bulawayo because we have more corporates here than in Victoria Falls,” said Minister Ndlovu.
Last year, Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo directed BCC to strengthen its by-laws so that the local authority can effectively deal with the congestion menace in the city centre.
Minister Moyo was responding to Bulawayo town clerk Mr Christopher Dube, who had raised concerns over the council’s failure to maintain order in the city. – The Chronicle
