ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT

10
Zimbabwe independent august 1 to 7, 2014
feature
Things fall further apart in Chi-Town
Wongai ZhangaZha
DRIVING through one of Chitungwiza’s
suburbs, Zengeza 3 Extension,
the smell of raw sewage is
sharp and the rancid stench hits
you in the face just as you enter
the suburb.
Sewage flows from manholes
onto the dusty streets creating
streams, with swarms of flies hovering
over the raw affluent which
has become a common sight in
many high-density suburbs.
To make the situation more tolerable,
concerned residents pushing
wheel barrows of sand could
be seen trying to temporarily cover
the flowing sewage, but it is a
losing battle.
“This is the only way we can
protect ourselves to a limited extent,”
said an angry resident who
identified himself as Munamato.
“Since we started reporting these
sewage leaks to council in February,
there has been no improvement.
Today (Wednesday) we
have gone to report again at council’s
works department and they
said they will come to attend to
the problem, but we know they
will not.”
Just close to the flowing raw
sewage is a deserted borehole that
used to service residents from as
far as Zengeza 1 and 2.
“We are afraid to fetch water
from there as we believe it’s contaminated
and not safe to drink.
But who cares about how we live.
We have been living like this for
so many years and the strike by
council workers has only worsened
our woes,” adds Munamato.
Chitungwiza, Harare’s teeming
dormitory town, is a veritable
health time bomb. Parts of Chitungwiza
such as Unit K, P, G and
Unit N have gone without running
water for two weeks, while sections
like Zengeza 1 and 2 have
been receiving erratic supplies of
water. Refuse has not been collected
in some areas for more than
a month, with huge garbage piles
on street corners and choking
potholed roads.
In some parts of Seke as well as
St Mary’s, raw sewage also flows
on the streets as workers are not
attending to burst pipes.
Over a million residents in the
town have lived with flowing raw
sewage and water problems over
a decade. During the 2008-2009
cholera epidemic, which killed
about 4 000 people, the town was
one of the hardest hit.
Residents also have to contend
with piles of uncollected garbage,
dilapidated infrastructure and frequent
power cuts.
What has compounded an already
dire situation is the strike
by council workers. The workers
downed their tools a month
ago demanding outstanding salaries
and allowances amounting
to US$11 million accrued over 13
months.
Although the workers have “resumed”
work, they are on a goslow.
During the strike, the workers
turned away ratepayers claiming
that if they paid their bills the
money would be squandered by
management.
The Zimbabwe National Army
had to be called in to help manage
critical departments at Chitungwiza
Town Council, particularly
the health department whose
clinics were unmanned after
nursing staff downed tools leaving
patients stranded.
Despite Chitungwiza producing
many prominent Zimbabweans
including the finest musicians,
evangelists and soccer players, the
town has little to show for it.
Health time bomb ... Raw sewage flows freely in Chitungwiza while a council truck approaches a garbage dump that threatens to cut off a street.
Legendary musicians like the
late John Chibadura and James
Chimombe, System Tazvida, the
Mahendere Brothers, Mechanic
Manyeruke, Charles Charamba
and his wife Olivia have all
sprung from the dormitory town,
famously known as Chi-Town, 25
kilometres south of Harare.
Chitungwiza has also produced
soccer stars such as Alois Bunjira,
Stewart Murisa, Lloyd Mutasa,
Lloyd Chitembwe, Frank Nyamukuta,
Farai Jere and Norman
Mapeza and charismatic evangelists
like Emmanuel Makandiwa
of the United Family International
Church and Walter Magaya of
Prophetic Healing and Deliverance
Ministries.
The once thriving satellite town,
established in the 1970s, is now a
pale shadow of its past.
So what has happened to Chitungwiza
with such facilities as
the Aquatic Complex, and the
Town Centre which it once boasted
of? Where is the satellite metropolitan
and civic centre which
were supposed to have been built
in Seke and the railway line linking
the town to Harare?
Illegal residential settlements
are mushrooming and crime is on
the rise as unemployment reaches
alarming levels in the town.
The strike by council workers
has made matters worse.
A visit to Seke South council
clinic in Unit L revealed a sorry
state of affairs as council workers
continued on a go-slow.
A snaking queue of patients
waiting to be served in the opportunistic
infections department of
the clinic was moving at a snail’s
pace.
A worker at the clinic who preferred
anonymity told the Zimbabwe
Independent that life was tough
and they were anxiously awaiting
the three months’ salary expected
on July 31 as promised.
“Morale is very low. Look at me.
I am a nurse, but I am not even
wearing my uniform to work and
that says a lot. I am just coming
to work because it’s better than
staying at home. It’s by the grace
of God that I am surviving,” said
the council worker. “Most of my
colleagues are surviving on selling
odds and ends during working
hours.”
She said as health employees,
they could not totally down their
tools.
“Some of these patients would
have been booked already and
turning them away would be cruel.
The council should just give us
our salaries so that we can work.
We have shown a lot of commitment
and patience despite the
Workers are now reluctantly back at work after
being threatened with a show cause order registered
by the minister at the Labour Court, but the
go-slow is obviously negatively affecting council
operations and the delivery of essential services.
tough times,” she said.
Five babies were delivered by
noon on Wednesday at the clinic.
The Chitungwiza Progressive
Residents Association programmes
manager Admire Mutize
this week said the collapse of
service delivery in Chitungwiza
accelerated just before last year’s
harmonised polls when Local
Government minister Ignatius
Chombo gave a directive scrapping
bills owed by residents.
Said Mutize: “Workers are now
reluctantly back at work after being
threatened with a show cause
order registered by the minister
at the Labour Court, but the goslow
is obviously negatively affecting
council operations and the
delivery of essential services.”
He said before the strike municipal
workers collected refuse
on a weekly basis, but since resuming
work, refuse collection
has become erratic with some
areas going for up to three weeks
without service.
On water supply, Mutize said
some areas were receiving water
once a week for only five hours
and residents were now relying
on untreated wells in their backyards,
exposing themselves to
water-borne diseases.
Chitungwiza Town Clerk
George Makunde on Wednesday
said morale was still very low
even though workers resumed
work last week on Friday.
Makunde said: “Workers are
demoralised because they have
not yet received their salaries. We
are still working on the modalities
and from where it’s coming from
it is very possible that we will be
able to pay them before the first of
August.”
He however denied that workers
are on a go-slow.
“They are just overwhelmed
by the work backlog. You have to
understand that these are people
who missed six days of work. So
reports of sewage blockages and
bursts we have received are too
many, not only in Zengeza Extension.
Residents have to take
cognisant of that though we are
working flat out to solve the
problems.”
He said one of the reasons they
could not pay the workers was
because residents owed the town
council US$28 million as from
July 2013 after debts were written
off on the orders of Chombo before
elections last year.