TWO Cabinet ministers, Mangaliso Ndlovu and Judith Ncube, have challenged Bulawayo shop owners and taxi operators to adopt some streets in the Central Business District (CBD) to ensure cleanliness in the city.
Ndlovu, who is the Environment, Climate Change and Tourism minister said Bulawayo was now very dirty while speaking at a workshop hosted by Environment Management Agency at a local hotel on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Bulawayo City Council (BCC) management including Town Clerk Christopher Dube, Bulawayo residents and associations representing businesses.
“Adopt those streets; let them be yours to maintain. There are so many businesses in this city and they outnumber the streets so if five businesses (can adopt) one street, there will be visible results,” Ndlovu said.
“I challenge even the taxi association since they are also here with us to be part of the ecosystem and adopt Sixth Avenue all the way to the old Rankini bus terminus in Makokoba.”
Ncube, the Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister, said she was embarrassed by the state of Bulawayo’s CBD.
“When we were in Victoria Falls, we had invited the Premier of Limpopo in South Africa and we got embarrassed because the city (Victoria Falls) was so clean, yet so small,” Ncube said.
“The businesses there adopted the streets and we want to do the same.”
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Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association chairperson Ambrose Sibindi said residents were chiefly to blame for street littering,
“We also need to deal with the issue of illegal vendors because there are everywhere, littering the streets. Some churches are conducting their services in open spaces where there are no ablution facilities and that is a health hazard,” Sibindi said.
Bishop Mudenda, representing the Zimbabwe Council of Churches said some churches had no option, but to use open spaces because the local authority was failing to allocate them land for places of worship.
Early this week, BCC planned to roll out a Murambatsvina-type operation against illegal vendors and other businesses operating without licences, but the exercise was halted at the last minute following security concerns.
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