Suburban
THE Zimbabwe Combined Residents and Rate Payers Association (ZICORRA) has said that the idea which was initially started by the Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) of repairing council’s refuse trucks is good but not sustainable.
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
The BRRA signed an agreement with the City of Harare early this year and adopted one refuse truck which it repaired using money donated by residents. Under the deal, the BRRA maintains and services the truck which is dedicated to serving suburbs under Ward 18 such as Borrowdale, Helensvale, Umwinsidale, Greystone Park, Glen Lorne, Philadelphia and Hogerty Hill.
Following the successful implementation of its Memorandum of Understanding with the BRRA, the City of Harare is now pushing for all other wards to approach them for similar agreements.
In a statement, ZICORRA said that the idea of having every ward adopt a refuse truck is a welcome move and will definitely improve service delivery as residents are directly involved.
However, the residents’ body noted that some wards are under capacitated to enter into such an agreement hence they will be left behind.
The body suggested that the city finds resources and dedicate refuse trucks to different districts.
“The adoption of refuse trucks by wards is a great idea but in some wards residents don’t have the resources of doing this. So it will be good if council is equipped and resourced to do this. It’s an in house issue they can resolve as City of Harare, if wards are given a proper budget for such things not for salaries or perks but for their day to day operations. They must get a high percentage of revenue collected in wards going towards this not to put the burden on ratepayers to repair and maintain refuse trucks for them,” ZICORRA said in its statement.
The organisation emphasised that each ward must have at least one or two refuse trucks dedicated to that ward which the ward runs and operates as a district office.
It argued that if that happens the refuse collection crisis facing the capital city will be resolved. ZICORRA also suggested that each ward should have its own recycling centre to receive recyclable waste which must not find its way to the dumpsites.
In May this year, Ward 7 residents also expressed their disapproval of moves by other wards in Harare to mobilise money to repair council refuse trucks saying this promotes dereliction of duty on the part of the municipality as it will seek to outsource more of its responsibilities.
“Afraid we disagree with Ward 16 fixing the refuse collector,” Ward 7 said in a response to story published by Suburban on May 27 2022.
In the story, Ward 16 indicated that it had visited the City of Harare workshops and identified a broken down refuse collection truck, which they would take for repairs to service their area.But Ward 7 residents felt this should not be the case as the municipality must service and maintain the refuse compactors. Ward 7 published reactions of residents who disapproved the Ward 16 idea on its Facebook page.
“This must never be encouraged especially when the ward has no control over who drives and how it is driven to where for what. He who owns must maintain, simple,” reasoned one Ward 7 resident.
Another one said: “I tend to agree with you. There is no doubt, the more you do in CoH’s stead (in their place) the more they will default on many other things, going forward.
Such an intervention may well solve a critical problem, for a while. But confidence in CoH policing itself (reserving a repaired compactor for our ward only) is non-existent.
And it will only help promote more dereliction of duty, by franchising more responsibilities out of CoH. Whilst still charging for service delivered.”
