Suburban
The Zimbabwe Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association (ZICORRA) has blamed the Harare City Council (HCC) for contributing greatly to the increased crime rate in different communities due to failure to maintain street lights.
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
The body says the local authority should embrace all strategies being put in place by residents to protect themselves including the boom gates, which the council has declared illegal if they were erected without its approval.
ZICORRA provincial coordinator Mr Lawrence Kuleya said council has exposed residents to criminals by not maintaining street lights, failing to deploy municipal police to do patrols in suburbs and cutting grass along roads.
Mr Kuleya said the continued allocation of residential stands by council in areas without adequate infrastructure also contributes to crime.
“Councils must also know that they have contributed greatly to crime within communities. They should rather work closely with residents in whatever measures residents take to protect communities,” he said.
“Most areas currently have non-functional street lights; the police stations are overwhelmed because communities are now over populated due to many developments sanctioned by councils over the years. Police stations are understaffed and under resourced. They are being forced to cater for a population they were not designed for. A typical example is Mabelreign Police Station which was designed for about eight to nine suburbs but now caters for almost 20 suburbs.
“Council is not cutting grass in many areas. Some areas are heavily congested due to many housing developments. That alone is an environment for breeding crime. So with all these issues caused by council, they should actually work with communities to correct their wrongs,” said Mr Kuleya.
A growing number of residents in Harare are now putting manned boom gates to secure their neighbourhoods from criminals but the City of Harare has cautioned them that the security barriers are illegal if it has not approved them, which is the case for many.
Community leaders have stepped in and encouraged residents to push for the amendment of such by-laws.
Commenting on the recent communication from CoH on the security boom gates, Mt Pleasant legislator Mr Samuel Banda said council is getting it wrong.
He said if professionally minded boom gates could be the answer to stopping crime in the different suburbs in Harare. Mr Banda said anyone seeking the removal of boom gates is behaving criminally and working against the protection of both life and property.
