Dear Sir, (Acting town clerk Engineer Phakamile Mabhena Moyo)
I appreciate the difficult task before you as you work on ensuring Harare gets to being a world-class city.
My views are informed by over 50 hours of contact with your teams spread daily over the last 252 days, dealing with waste management issues for Ward 9 – Greendale.
We have engaged everyone from the bottom of your structure through to the Acting Director of Works and the Finance Director on the issue of waste management. The Waste Management Department says the Department of Works is failing to repair compactors.
The Acting Director of Works says the Finance Director is failing to pay for repairs. The Finance Director is saying that the Director of Works is failing to send requisitions for payments and that he will pay the requisitions if presented, and the Director of Works says the Finance Director is being untruthful.
I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a circus. Now one amongst them has, perhaps in abandonment, directed me to you and hopefully you will put a stop to this.
The Council sends weekly refuse collection schedules banded in collection areas per day that cannot be met yet they refuse to amend it to match reality. It has been proven that the schedule for Ward 9, set over 6 days actually requires 11 days to complete with the one refuse compactor that we’ve been allocated. (Monday collection area, together with shopping centres requires two days of service, Tuesday needs one day, Wednesday needs 1.5 days, Thursday needs three days, Friday needs one day, and Saturday needs 1.5 days). Following this need it appears that if residents are to experience the weekly service that is currently required in order to keep the ward clean and free from disease then there is a need for at least two trucks to operate daily for six days, or for the one truck to operate into the night on all six days (or any similar intervention). The fortnightly service that, somehow, has been pushed on ratepayers, is not practical if the ward is to be kept clean whilst it would appear that charges for the service have in reality doubled as they have not been adjusted downward to reflect the fewer service runs.
The level of service, although vastly improved from September last year, is quite poor. In several areas, ratepayers do not receive refuse collection services (Manresa, Mukandabhutsu, Chikurubi, Parts of Support Unit Camp, and Msasa Police Camp) despite being billed. Some hardly receive service (Donnybrook, Letombo, Greengrove, and Athlone), and some (Greendale North, Mandara, Kamfinsa, Rhodesville) receive service albeit inefficiently.
I will leave you to draw inferences on how the decision on who gets better service is achieved.
We have run awareness campaigns and clean-ups at great expense in the ward, and the dumping and burning situation improved for a time as the Waste Management Team worked closely with us. Over the last two months, however, the refuse collection service has worsened and the dumping and burning has commenced again. Add to this the fact that the dumps, which the City Council never clean up, are predominately filled with used diapers, it is clear that the propensity for the spread of diseases such as cholera and typhoid is high. The water leaks in close proximity to dumps, such as the major leak at the Letombo Water Works, only increase the risk posed by these medieval and avoidable diseases.
The burning exposes whole communities to possible long-term respiratory problems. Street cleaners are said to be deployed to our ward but our streets, even around the (Greendale) District Office, remain untended.
The natural question for us as rate-payers is, easily, where are the waste management fees utilised?
Given that the council is assumed to bill our ward the equivalent of approximately US$200,000 monthly for waste management alone, and given that His Worship, the Mayor has said that a new refuse compactor costs US$80,000, and further considering that the Council has so many repairable compactors which are out of service in the Council yard (that are offered to communities to adopt and use) it is clear that the Council should have several options to ensure that our ward receives the expected weekly service.
It doesn’t help that it is publicly recorded that, around 2014 the director for waste management was receiving US$34,299 in monthly salaries, and that, a 2022 labour dispute with your Finance Director claimed the equivalent of US$29,166 per month in salaries, benefits and allowances over the previous six years.
This gives the impression of continued high, whilst possibly competitive remuneration and allowances (well over the gazetted amounts) even today but raises the question for ratepayers regarding whether these handsomely rewarded officials are deemed to be performing to meet the expectations.
Perhaps, to quote Councillor Ngadziore, “heads should roll” but I am sure the revenue team will be spared as they don’t miss a step with billing. Manresa and Donnybrook, for example, have been billed for refuse collection for more than 10 years and three years respectively without receiving service. We’ve tried to re-establish service for them since December and have requested that other areas be put back online but it seems that the commitment to keep things working is not always matched through support from the offices that count.
Sadly, those doing their best appear to be being treated badly. The refuse crew, who I speak to daily, are hardly given time off and my investigations suggest that overtime for these front-line workers is calculated but never paid out. Is that correct?
Having seen the salary schedules and comparing them to the supposed earnings of the senior people, my heart bleeds.
I acknowledge that there are some in the structures that are genuinely doing their best but inevitably residents just want the service that they are being billed for. Residents don’t want to die from medieval diseases. We shouldn’t have to.
When ratepayers decide to help themselves by delivering their waste to the Pomona landfill in order to avoid dumping following the City Council service failure, the Council charges them for the effort resulting in double billing for the same refuse. In reality, this discourages proper disposal of waste that the Council would have failed to collect and makes dumping the only option possible, more so for those with diapers.
All that being said I hereby call on the Council, through you, to:
Put an immediate moratorium on the fee for residential waste being delivered to Pomona landfill for our ratepayers until you have provided consistent refuse collection service on a weekly schedule for at least 90 days.
By 1 June 2023 put in place measures to credit accounts of ratepayers whenever you fail to provide the service.
By 1 June 2023 credit ratepayers in Manresa (who hadn’t had service for 10 years) and Donnybrook (who hadn’t had service for three years) for their years of waste management fees paid at the current rate.
Allocate enough cleaners, equipment and compliance officers by 1 July, 2023, to ensure that the roads are kept clean across the ward.
By 1 June 2023 provide us with the reference to documents, law, statute, regulation or contract that specifies the level of service that the Council must provide when it comes to waste management (and recourse when the Council fails), and the same documentation mandating residents to be billed and to pay for that Council service.
Clean up and sanitise the 24 dumps in the ward by 31 August 2023.
Provide all of the Ward 9 neighbourhoods with equitable weekly refuse collection service starting on or before 1 July 2023.
I trust that you appreciate the need for urgency on this matter and hope that you will act promptly.
We have had similar journeys with water, street lighting, and traffic lights which we may discuss in due course.
Our community remains at the ready for positive engagement.
Sincerely,
Brian Shenje Community Leader Ward 9 Greendale
