Suburban
THE City of Harare has applauded the efforts of Mt Pleasant residents Mrs Debbie Swales and Mr Andrew Brown to repair roads and clean up open spaces in the suburb saying it welcomes partnerships with residents and organisations willing to help in improving their communities.
Suburban Reporter
A recent service delivery meeting held at Kingdom Church in Mt Pleasant heard of the good works of Mrs Swales and her team have been doing in the suburb prompting city officials in attendance to pay tribute to the team of volunteers.
Council officials said residents were welcome to proffer ideas and strategies to help improve service delivery. The officials said where council was hamstrung it could provide the manpower while the partners provide needed materials or funding whichever they were comfortable with.
“Mr Mutasa (City of Harare roads department) also applauded Mrs Swales and Mr Brown residents of Mt Pleasant who took it upon themselves to develop Mt Pleasant constituency through potholes patching and he further went on to say residents are welcome to come up with suggestions on how best to improve our community. Residents can partner with council on certain development strategies, council can provide manpower and residents can come on board with whatever they will have,” read the minutes of the service delivery meeting.
For the past year, Mrs Debbie Swales has embarked on project “Magnificent Mt Pleasant” where with the help of other residents and corporates, she has been doing community work aimed at reviving the suburb’s lost splendour.
The community work ranges from cleaning up the environment to fixing roads and pothole patching. Mr Brown built a small cart, employed and trained one worker to start fixing the many potholes in the suburb and this has been an ongoing project now with two carts and two casual workers.
Mrs Swales said she took it upon herself to carry out community work and restore Mt Pleasant to its golden state as she was tired of waiting for the City of Harare to step up but never did.
“Having been a resident of Mt Pleasant for the past 12 years, I was finding it increasingly difficult to accept that we all sit back and blame others, mostly the impoverished City of Harare, for allowing this once beautiful suburb to degenerate and become a cesspit for other people’s rubbish and a place where there was no respect for the environment or suburb as a whole,” she told Suburban.
She went on to explain how her love for community work began and what she has done for the past year since she started the project.
“I am, first and foremost, an environmentalist and this is how the story began.
Whilst walking down Bargate Road and across the bridge which spans the Gwebi River, I vowed to do something about the horrendous vista in front of me. Looking at a river stinking of sewerage and so piled high with litter that the water was not even visible. Two causal workers started collecting litter, about 180 bags of litter. A week later, a friend of mine, Taryne, came to assist with the clean-up of the river itself.
“Approximately 400 bags of garbage in total were collected during this clean up and all of it was very kindly transported to the Pomona dump, at no charge, by Helen Davidson from Refuse Collection Services. She still continues to assist us as we continue to collect rubbish every day. Now that the clean-up was done, we had to prevent perpetrators from dumping their garbage into the river.
With the approval from Mrs (Marian) Mverechena at the Mt Pleasant District Office, and with the generous donation from Mr Andrew Brown who provided and erected a tall barrier fence on the bridge, we have achieved the result; a clean, unpolluted river, pleasing to the eye, where birds can survive and breed again.
This reward of seeing this area transformed from a cesspit to an oasis was, and is, the beginning of many more challenges to come.
“We then employed Timmy who patrols the area every day on our community buffalo bicycle to pick up litter discarded by a few inconsiderate people who disrespect the law. Bargate Road itself was completely overgrown with long thatching grass.
Although the grass was a haven for birdlife, it was a recipe for disaster for schoolchildren and other pedestrians who had to walk down the middle of the road, dodging traffic, to avoid the dew laden grass.
At first the grass was slashed by hand (but since then we have invested in a trimming machine) in order to open up the pedestrian pathway which had not been visible for many years, never mind used!
