DISGRUNTLED informal traders at the Lobengula Street Mall in Bulawayo’s central business district have described council’s failure to collect litter and to provide bins in the area as “a ticking health timebomb waiting to explode”.
Report by Blondie Ndebele Own correspondent
The vendors said this during a recent clean-up campaign organised by Zimbabwe Climate Change Organisation.
They said they requested for council to collect garbage in the area in July this year, but nothing materialised.
“There are a lot of people here,” said an informal trader.
“The drainage is not closed and people dispose their dirt in these drainages, no matter how much we sweep, there is no one who collects the rubbish so it keeps piling up in one place.
“We pay $14 to the city council every month to sell our wares here and it never collects litter.
“There are mosquitoes and flies. We are here because we want to earn a living, otherwise this place is a health timebomb.”
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A women’s rights activist who took part in the clean-up exercise urged council to be proactive to prevent a major disease outbreak.
Contacted for comment, Bulawayo mayor Thaba Moyo attributed the non-collection of garbage to cash shortages.
“We don’t have finances to acquire bins, but we have approached the corporate world to assist in acquiring new bins,” he said.
