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Glen Norah residents raise issues of alleged corruption in their community
Harare Residents Trust (HRT)
January 31, 2010

Residents here have raised concern at the escalating rate of corruption by identified nurses at the local clinic and a Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) employee in the suburb. They also complained about the failure by the City of Harare to control urban agriculture as some residents have planted maize at intersections and other road signs, blocking motorists' view of the road, and risking fatal accidents.

The nurses at the Glen Norah B Clinic allegedly shared among themselves donated equipment, kitchen utensils and mosquito nets meant for the maternity section. Residents are particularly riled by the continued demand for those wishing to give deliver their babies at the clinic to bring their own linen cloths, buckets and other essentials in childbirth yet there is a donation from well-wishers that has gone missing.

Last week the residents' leadership of Glen Norah B' Residents' Trust Chairperson Juliet Masiyembiri and a Committee member Mbuya Ireen Svosve approached the nurse in charge to establish the facts around the donated materials. The residents told the Harare Residents' Trust (HRT) at a leadership training programme held at St Peter's Kubatana in Highfield on Saturday that after receiving these reports, they engaged the nursing staff, and also visited a local resident who was admitted in the maternity ward. They were further told that the nurses at the clinic are abusive to patients and lack respect for people.

They established that the donated equipment remains unused at the clinic and speculation is rife that the materials have found their way either into the open market or they have been taken by officials at the clinic. This is a matter they have reportedly made to the ward 27 Councillor, Hebert Gomba to investigate.

Meanwhile, the residents have accused a local resident Mr Kingsley Kanyuchi of allegedly enriching himself through charging residents for the distribution of donated food items to, which they believe is being given freely by an identified Christian donor agency.

"Instead of enhancing food security in Glen Norah, Mr Kanyuchi is charging residents' US$4 to be able to be placed on the distribution list and a further US$0, 50 as transport of the food to Glen Norah from the donor," said the residents.

When contacted to respond to these serious allegations, Mr Kanyuchi said: "The HRT should be wary of such complaints because they might come from my detractors who are out to destroy me. You are free to discuss this issue with me."

Still, the HRT urges the City of Harare and the National Association of Non Governmental Organisations to investigate how relief food can be allegedly sold in a community with impoverished citizens as Glen Norah.

Pedestrians and motorists are at risk of fatal accidents in the community after it emerged that urban farmers have disregarded City of Harare by-laws on urban agriculture by planting maize crops at intersections and obscuring other road signs. This has increased the risk of innocent lives being lost to negligence on the part of the community, in adhering to traditional restrictions on land use, the City of Harare for failure to closely implement its own policies on urban agriculture. The HRT expects remedial action in the shortest possible time or it would be too late.

Motorists fear muggings at intersections at night and are finding it difficult to drive out of their houses due to the physical barriers of maize meal too close to the road.

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