The incompetence of Harare City Council is being exhibited across the city as in almost every suburb garbage is piling up and residents are living in constant fear of a serious health outbreak, a review by this publication has shown.
By Samson Fombe
According Peter Makumbe, a resident of Mainway Meadows, south of the city, it’s been long since he saw a council refuse collection truck.
“The garbage collection trucks no longer come at all and as a result people end up disposing of their garbage on my residential stand (yet to be developed),” he said.
As a result of this he has resorted to constantly clearing his stand and staying up late to make sure that no one disposes of their solid waste on his property.
On its part, HCC has constantly shifted blame on the residents whom it accuses of defaulting on rates payments. The local authority claims it is owed millions of dollars by rate payers and says this has weakened its capacity to provide services to the city.
However, early this year the Environmental Management Committee Council Chairperson Councillor Tendai Matafi said the authority took delivery of four refuse compactors with the rest of equipment having been expected in the first quarter this year.
Despite the reassurance, the situation on the ground remains precarious.
But experts say the source of council’s inefficiencies is not due defaulting by rate payers but self-inflicted.
According to Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) programs manager,Reuben Akili, HCC’s financial management and poor procurement systems have eroded more resources that could have been utilized in service provision.
“The City of Harare purchased 15 refuse trucks and double skip trucks for refuse collection in 2017. However the trucks haven’t been delivered yet, a wrong consignment of single skip trucks were delivered and local authority accepted it. This is a financial management issue and if the city continues to operate in such a manner we are not going anywhere,” he said.
“These waste collection issues which are being normalized by the local authorities happen to be occurring at a time when the city is spending much on a football team and the recent ZITF expenditure,”
“As long as service delivery is not being prioritized on council expenditure service provision will continue to deteriorate and public health issues will only worsen.”
About US$ 1.8 million was lost in two botched deals which saw the authority contracting Mass Breed Investments, a company trading as FAW Zimbabwe to supply 30 refuse compactors in deal worth US$ 3 million in 2017.
Another deal was entered between the two entities for the supply of 10 double skip bin trucks valued around US$ 1.5 million.
It is alleged that in the first deal, the company managed to supply just 15 trucks prejudicing council of US$1.5 million while the second deal supplied a single skip trucks instead of double bin skip trucks disenfranchising council of close to US$ 300 000.
