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Residents' Voices - Issue 27
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
August 13, 2010

Residents demand their money's worth

Bulawayo residents are calling on the resolution of tariffs levied at services. This call comes at a time when service delivery has been crippled not only because of lack of money but also because of incompetence and corruption within parastatals and service providers. For a long time now, residents have complained about the imbalances between services delivered or rather not delivered and imposed tariffs. For instance, the fixed electricity charges of US$30 to US$40 are not equivalent to electricity consumption. The hard earned cash that residents fork out should, in turn, be worth the services they receive. When residents need service providers to attend to faults they are given excuses such as lack of fuel, and shortage of personnel. This has raised eyebrows and called for scrutiny as the management within parastatals are awarding themselves hefty salaries yet complain that there are no workers. Residents are weary of the excuses given by these parastatals and generally unhappy at the treatment by the parastatals and have called on the respective authorities to look into the issue of tariffs.

City Council should deliver

Pumula residents have stated that burst sewer overflows, the characteristic feature of the yester years, are still continuing despite the presence of inclusive government and the uncontrolled spending by the municipality. The burst sewers have been left unattended regardless of the hazards that they pose to residents. Streams of sewer flow near households and churches and it seems this has become 'normal', yet the government continuously states that it is committed to enhancing the livelihoods of its residents. It also seems that the council is also slack in attending to these cases as it views them as normal inconsistencies of modern day urban life. Gone are the days when residents would rely on the Bulawayo City Council to attend to such cases in less than 24 hours. Even initiatives taken by residents such as constructing lee ways for sewer flows do not necessarily yield to any help as the stench that communities have to live with is dreadful. Residents have called upon the council to rise up and be what it was once known for.

Spate of robberies lay bare the prospects of residents' security

It has been said a countless number of times that law enforcers are not very strict on robbers and this is one of the factors that has led to an increase in the number of thefts in local shops and loss of lives. Residents from Pumula high density suburb have said it is crucial for residents to engage themselves in community initiatives such as forming and joining neighbourhood committee watches to curb the spate of organised crime. Residents stated this at a constituency assembly meeting organised by Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association in Pumula. The meeting was a platform for community leaders of various sectorial interests to build social networks as a basis for advocacy. Representatives from the business sector indicated that to try and curb incidences of shop lifting and petty theft, shop owners have been forced to come up with strategies that can reduce thefts, though most some of them have been said to be consumer unfriendly. For instance in some shops wooden blocks are placed at the entrance so that anyone who would have hidden stolen items in their undergarments cannot easily pass through as the stolen items will drop. Business people said that the law is unfair to them as they are charged if they punish the shoplifters. Due to the fact that the law is not strict on these offenders business people are forced to take the law into their own hands.

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