Suburban
THE ZANU PF District Coordinating Committee 4 last Friday held a clean-up campaign at Pendennis Shopping Centre in Mt Pleasant in line with the monthly clean-up campaigns initiated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
In an interview, ZANU PF Harare provincial chairperson Cde Godwills Masimirembwa said the ruling party is interested in every place where human beings are in Harare because President Mnangagwa is spreading the gospel of cleanliness being next to Godliness.
“Pendennis shopping centre is part of Harare and must be kept clean like any other place.
“So Pendennis is a shopping area which is quite busy. It generates a lot of waste from the shops, their patrons and so on and so the clean-up was just so that everyone in that area appreciates what His Excellency (the President) is talking about.
“And there were lots of empty beer bottles, beer cans and so on which means there must be liquor outlets there where people drink outside but they don’t deposit that litter into litter bins or if litter bins are lacking, there is need to raise the issues with the local authority so that bins liners or litter bins are availed,” said Cde Masimirembwa.
Presenting his State of the City Address two weeks ago, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume admitted the challenges bedevilling waste management in the capital city.
Councillor Mafume, however, said the City of Harare was working on remodelling its waste management strategies in a bid to improve efficiency.
“Solid waste management: Our City is faced with huge challenges in the areas of waste collection, disposal and management.
“We are remodelling the waste management function in Harare by transforming it from traditional waste collection and disposal to Integrated Solid Waste Management,” he said.
The Mayor said the city continues to operate with a severely depleted fleet of refuse collection compactors hugely compromising the municipality’s efficiency.
This has led to piles of rubbish accumulating in residential areas, at business premises and public places such as shopping centres.
Illegal dumping has also become a menace in Harare as result of the municipality’s failure to run an effective waste management programme.
“Your city for the past six months managed to maintain an average daily fleet of 10 compactors out of a desired 46 compactors to collect waste in the 46 Wards.
“We are currently collecting waste from 207 000 properties. Our collection efficiency has been compromised due to non-availability of adequate fleet and this has seen the recurrence of illegal dumps across the city.
“Recently we purchased three compactors using our own funds and we are hoping to purchase more before the end of the year if Government honours its obligation to release devolution funds which we had budgeted for the purchase of refuse collection compactors and trucks,” said Cllr Mafume.
He said the city is seized with efforts to look for an alternative hazardous waste disposal site following the closure of the Golden Quarry site.
“We will also continue to engage the Government for identification of a hazardous waste disposal site.
“Currently the city has no such site as the one at Golden Quarry was decommissioned to pave way for the National Museum.
“Street cleaning remains a challenge. We are worried with increased littering in the CBD (central business district).
“We are working with various partners to install pole litter bins in the CBD, and we are calling upon willing partners and waste collection companies, plastic manufacturing companies and industrialists to partner the city in the installation of bins which we commit to manage effectively,” said Cllr Mafume.
He said the city of Harare supports Government’s initiative under the National Clean Up Day, which is held every first Friday of the new month, to promote cleanliness in residential areas, business premises and public places.
“We support the initiative by Government to dedicate the first Friday of the month as National Clean Up day. As a city we are fully supportive and we will participate fully on these national programmes.”
