Harare Residents Trust Director, Precious Shumba has called Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa sick minded over his remarks that residents are responsible for the recent typhoid outbreak in Harare.
Addressing a round table discussion in Harare on Thursday, Shumba said it is the duty of City Council to maintain a clean environment and not residents as Parirenyatwa would want people to believe.
“Dr Parirenyatwa is dirty in mind, how can he blame residents for not being hygienic yet it is the duty of the Harare city council to maintain the city clean,” said Shumba adding that the residents have nothing to do with the spread of Typhoid in the capital.
“As we are speaking right now, raw sewage is flowing in Mbare, wastes are everywhere but the council is not offering service delivery.
“Council is not focusing on cleaning the city but the authorities are being paid more than thousand dollars per month which means 80% of the money they are earning is going towards salaries at the expense of service delivery,” Shumba added.
However, he also urged City of Harare to start working on maintaining good service delivery to the residents, warning them to be careful of being overtaken by the ruling ZANU PF.
“The council is full of MDC people, and they should be careful because they are saying the government is not giving them money to maintain the city. Elections are coming and they will be blamed for all the mess in the capital, and then ZANU PF will take over,” said Shumba.
Meanwhile Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has called upon City of Harare to address the major drivers of typhoid rather than concentrating on window dressing measures such as the war on vendors.
“Unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene services are among the key drivers of typhoid and need urgent attention if the typhoid outbreak is to be contained,” reads a statement from CHRA.
The residents’ body said City of Harare should direct more of its energy towards improving service delivery by ensuring that citizens have access to clean and safe water, providing adequate ablution facilities for the general public and improving drainage systems.
CHRA further implored city fathers to improve on refuse collection in the CBD and residential areas as well as provision of adequate bins in the CBD.
