Suburban
Residents from the northern suburbs continue to take charge of issues in their neighbourhoods to ensure service delivery in the wake of the incapacitation choking the City of Harare. This week, the Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association announced plans to help repair the traffic lights at the intersection of Domboshava Road and Crowhill Road to ensure the smooth flow of traffic at the busy junction.
The BRRA chairperson Mr Robert Mutyasira also said residents of Borrowdale will soon be approaching the Harare City Council for a partnership so that the residents can help the municipality with management of refuse collection trucks.
The residents are willing to provide funding once a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between their representative body and the City of Harare spelling out the modalities of the agreement.
Plans are also underway by residents to repair the roof at the Borrowdale District Office commonly known as the “round house” because council is presently challenged to maintain or repair the offices.
Already the Borrowdale residents have helped restore broken down grass cutting tools in another commendable effort.
The BRRA boss also urged residents to take an interest in service delivery issues and do their part rather than just criticise or analyse the problems facing council without proffering solutions.
In Alexandra Park, residents continue to engage council and other relevant authorities over their objection to the building of proposed flats on a wetland along Maxwell Road in the suburb. Residents of Vainona and the Dandaro Home Owners Association have also joined in the consultations to convince the authorities against approving the construction of the flats.
The residents argue that the more than 1 000 new residents who will be staying at the flats will result in congestion on Maxwell Road as most of them will have at least a car if not two per family. The existing services will also not be able to cater for the increased number of people in Alexandra Park, which has only one public school Alexandra Primary School and the nearby Hellenic Academy, which is a private school.
The City of Harare is already failing to provide water and collect refuse from the existing residents of Alex Park and the situation is likely to worsen with another 1 000 residents added to the list of those in need of such services, the residents are arguing. These are reasonable arguments, which are quite valid in our view and should get the due attention they deserve.
In Greendale residents are organising a clean-up of the Kamfinsa shopping centre area where rubbish has been accumulating exposing them to diseases and making an unpleasant sight at the shops.
We commend residents for their efforts and urge the City of Harare to, as a matter of urgency, put their house in order to ensure they win the trust, hearts and minds of the residents. At a time, residents are going out of their way to help, reports in
