Bulawayo (New Ziana)-The Bulawayo City Council should stop passing the blame and focus on finding solutions to challenges bedevilling the local authority, including the issue of illegal vendors, a senior ruling party official has said.
In an interview with New Ziana on Friday, ZANU PF Bulawayo province chairperson Jabulani Sibanda said the city should not blame anyone for the occupation of 5 Avenue by vendors, as it was the one which allowed them to use the spaces.
He said the city council had lost control of the city and should not blame any political party but instead, find solutions ways of improving service delivery and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.
Council is at loggerheads with vendors operating along 5 Avenue, who it accuses of disrupting the smooth movement of traffic and posing a serious health hazard to residents.
Last week, municipal police fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd which had gathered to demonstrate against an operation targeting illegal vendors in the Central Business District.
During a full council meeting on Wednesday, Ward 9 councillor Donald Mabutho implored mayor Solomon Mguni and Town Clerk Christopher Dube to engage Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube and Sibanda to assist in bringing peace and order to the 5 Avenue area.
In response, Sibanda said it was council which allowed vendors to trade in that street and it should stop pointing fingers at anyone.
“It is the council that initiated the programme. Now the city council is failing to control what they started. It is not the fault of any political party or me,” he said.
Sibanda said most of the vendors were former council employees who were retrenched as a result of mismanagement and corruption.
“Where are the people who used to collect garbage in the city who were permanently employed? Council retrenched them. Look now, where are the building brigades who used to build Nkulumane, Magwegwe West and North? They no longer exist, and people are forced to rely on private contractors to do those jobs.
“Council has lost itself. They did away with all these systems and brought a new culture which they inherited from political parties that came to run the council and disappeared along the way, but the people will always be there.
“These people in the streets are the very people who were taken out of employment, and they are now working within the peripheries of the city council,” said Sibanda.
He blamed the council officials of being corrupt and incompetent.
“All refuse collection vehicles were destroyed, and garbage is now collected from one point. Now they have tendered their cousins’ trucks that are supposed to transport cattle to collect garbage.
“I don’t think the boys who collect garbage are paid because they are working without protective clothing. Actually, they are just taking diseases to their homes because they are being exposed to garbage,” said Ndlovu.
New Ziana
