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Council should deliver - Residents' voices
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
March 29, 2010

Comment

Over the weekend of 20-21 March the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association held Planning meetings for its secretaries for education, environment and gender. The planning meetings brought all ward secretaries for the purpose of consulting, planning and giving feedback on their activities at ward level. The secretaries, in response to various issues raised, came up with a programme of action to be implemented at ward level. This includes carrying out massive environmental awareness programmes as a way of inculcating environmentally friendly attitudes amongst residents and holding ward women's for a that will provide an opportunity for women to engage alone and review each others problems and progress as a peer review mechanism.

Council should deliver

Residents in Bulawayo have passed complaints over the City Council's plea for residents to take part in voluntary activities to improve their wards. This comes at a time when Bulawayo City Council (BCC), through Councillors, is calling on Residents to volunteer to cut overgrown grass, fill potholes, carry out ward cleanups and other such activities.

The City Council should execute its duties and not encourage a culture of volunteering, which in turn forces residents to subsidise the City Council. Residents do not have the required skills and resources to permanently solve the cirses faced by different wards. The tools and type of soil used to fill potholes cannot withstand the rains. After the residents cut grass they dump it on road sides and this poses a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The City Council has become over reliant on the assistance that it receives from different organisations such that it has neglected its duties and expects some people to handle them. To the residents' dismay, the City Council is claiming that it does not have adequate resources yet it is procuring expensive vehicles for some council workers. Residents are requesting clarification on whether or not funds can be diverted such that they are used for the benefit of the masses instead of the opposite where the masses will volunteer for the benefit of the City Council.

Facilities for the youth

Concern has been raised over the increase in the number of nightclubs that are in high-density suburbs. Such recreational facilities are built at the expense of their facilities that can benefit the youth. A case in point is in Nkulumane (ward 20), which does not have a youth centre, or arena but a nightclub and several beer gardens.

Most youths are unemployed; some have dropped out of school while others are acquitted criminals. It is because of such youth that crime is rife as these young people resort to criminal ways of making money. How then are societies expected to ensure a bright future when children are surrounded by facilities that do not inspire or groom them to be better people. The last youth centre was built in 1984 in Lobengula, therefore it is about time residents pushed the responsible authorities to build facilities that will empower the youth.

Political and socio-economic issues that grip the country have forced authorities and residents to pay more attention to activities that bear financial benefits. Nowadays bread and butter issues are not basic issues but are those that will immediately bring food or money on the table.

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