Back to Index

Residents' Voices - Issue 28
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
August 23, 2010

Residents to push ZESA to deliver

Residents have passed complaints about the erratic load shedding to no avail as no changes have been noted. Residents fear that their queries fall on deaf ears and that the parastatal takes them for granted. Rate payers are still facing the same challenges they did when the parastatal resorted to load shedding in 2006. In an attempt to create a relationship between residents and the parastatal, BPRA held meetings whose main thrust was to engage residents and service providers. Although ZESA did make a few adjustments after interactions with residents, there is still a long way to go before residents are content with services provided. Some people are seeking explanations as to why the periods of load shedding vary from one suburb to the other. Residents said that if load shedding was genuine it would be uniform across the city and the hours elapsed without electricity in residential areas would be the same.

Burst sewers the order of the day

Some Nketa residents have gone for eight months with sewers bursting in their yards. The residents allege that they have lost count of the number of times that they have reported this challenge to the city council but to date very little assistance has been offered. One of the residents whose yard has sewer flowing out from the drainage system said that when the city council attends to the burst pipes it is only a few days before another pipe bursts a few houses away from hers. The residents said that when the city council arrives to attend to the problem they claim that their pipes are either too short or not wide enough for the sewer to flow. The affected residents concurred that the responsible department has never finished a job because they always claim that there are some machines needed to complete the job but they never return. Often, days later the pipes burst again. The residents have said that the city council should take their concerns seriously because their homes have become looming health hazards

Health care facilities too expensive

Gone are the days when public health was a priority. Today proper health care facilities only serve those that can afford. Council clinics, whose main target is supposed to be the lowest denominator, now require patients to bring medical equipment that most people cannot afford. Residents were made to believe that the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) would look into the issue of affordable health care. Like many other hopes that were built by the GPA, this one has been shattered as residents cannot identify any positive changes.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP