The recent Typhoid outbreak scare in the City of Harare which has seen the Government and Harare City Council playing the blame game has led Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) to mobilise residents and call for responsible authorities to take action against the disease and stop blaming each other.
Transform Zimbabwe on Saturday launched the ‘Keep The City Clean’ campaign themed ‘stop blaming and start acting’, in Harare’s Glenview suburb, Area 8 Terminus meant to mobilize citizens to actively partake in ensuring that their living environment stays clean.
The campaign was an effort to help sanitize the Sunshine City as a way of contributing to the fight against a possible Typhoid pandemic and litter.
TZ President Jacob Ngarivhume, in a press statement, said the Typhoid threat does not need politicking but combined efforts from all affected and administrative stakeholders.
He said the clean-up campaign was non-political but aimed at educating residents on Typhoid and encouraging Harare citizens to unite and take action in keeping their environment clean and preventing such diseases as Typhoid.
“The outbreak of Typhoid in our Cities has shown us that this is not the time to play politics.
“Life is more important than any politics that may divide us thus it is time we support each other and be neighborly as we are all united by our love for Zimbabwe,” he said.
“Keep The City Clean Campaign is not a political campaign and is not designed to replace, contradict or interfere with the legal governmental mandates but it is to aid, support and encourage us as citizens to take responsibility for our living environment as citizens who love our country,” he said.
Ngarivhume said the campaign will include the promotion of healthy practices in the city through educating and bringing awareness about the Typhoid disease, its causes, prevention and treatment.
He said educational campaigns to assist in mobilizing the local public proactively against littering and encouraging the community to continue mobilizing and cleaning up around their own spaces, be it at home or in workplaces will be done.
Harare City Council’s lack of funding, as Ngarivhume went on, has resulted in problems such as low frequency of trash collection, spread of disease due to unsanitary areas and unclean water supply with littering clogging storm water drains which in turn cause flooding as well as decreasing property values, thus decreases tourism which affects the economy.
“The under-funding of the City of Harare is making it extremely difficult to have consistent cleanup programmes for the city. Mayor Ben Manyenyeni has been under a lot of pressure to accomplish so much with very little resources. It is time to come together and do our part by making an effort to transform our cities by keeping our communities clean,” he said.
