Bulawayo (New Ziana) – A top Bulawayo civic leader has implored city fathers to be innovative and come up with solutions to some of the challenges confronting the city.
Addressing an inaugural 2023 Bulawayo council meeting, city mayor Solomon Mguni said the municipality was working hard to solve the difficulties facing the country’s second capital, particularly service delivery, but the tempo must be increased, and approach refined.
He said city fathers and council management should think outside the box and come up with strategies to cater to the varied needs of residents.
“You need to be creative, innovative and embrace change. It can’t be business as usual in 2023. We can’t be using slashers to cut grass yet there are portable motorised cutters. We have only one year left to achieve a leading smart and transformative city status by year 2024, yet we are still using 1994 service delivery methods,” he said.
“In 2023, we can’t be paying sweepers to clean the front of residential and business premises, yet there are owners who are doing business and making money and generating waste from those buildings. There are a lot of waste pickers and recycling groups that are crying out loud for empowerment,” he added.
Mguni said litter had become today`s raw material, and as such locals should take advantage to create employment and reduce the burden on council of waste collection.
“Waste can be used to generate energy such as biogas. Let’s strengthen our policies and I know City fathers stand ready to approve policies that are meant to improve service delivery,” he said.
Mguni also expressed concern over illegal vending activities in the Central Business District(CBD) by touts and vendors.
He said touts and vendors had literally taken control of some streets of the city and were making money out of parking and other businesses.
“So daring are the vendors such that some even occupied the pavements and established businesses and sell the same items as found in the established shops that pay rentals and levies to the council and taxes to government.
“The level of garbage that they generate and dump on sanitary lanes is enormous, and they are also using the lanes as toilets. I have never seen such kind of vending in Bulawayo,” he said.
Mguni said the situation had become untenable as regards the chaos the touts and vendors were causing in the city.
New Ziana
