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Residents' Voices - Issue 42
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
January 28, 2011

Unemployment scourge worsens

Residents see a bleak future as companies in Bulawayo continue to downsize while others relocate to other cities. This further cripples the industries that have been on a down turn since the dollarisation and multi-currency system. Most industries failed to resume operations in 2009 and this increased the unemployment rate in the city forcing most youths to turn to the informal sector. However, those that work for reputable companies in the city have been faced with various challenges. For instance, workers at Downings Bakery in Bulawayo have gone for two years and nine months without pay, sources at the institution have revealed. According to workers at the bakery who spoke to Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) the only incentive that they get is bread. The workers said they do not understand why they have not been paid for such a long time yet business at the bakery has been normal since 2009. They said this scenario has made their lives miserable as they are hardly able to feed their families and cater for other provisions such as school fees, rent, electricity and water. The issue is with the labour court at the moment. This comes at a time when there have been reports that the labour court is experiencing an increase in cases.

Lessons stalled as lecturers transfer

Lessons in the Engineering Department at the Bulawayo Polytechnic are at a virtual standstill as lecturers have transferred to other institutions. Students doing water engineering at the institution said they are only having lessons once a week as lecturers for most of the courses have left for the proverbial greener pastures. Zimbabwe has suffered from skills flight in science areas such as engineering and medicine due to poor remuneration since the economic downturn that began towards the year 2000. BPRA sees this as a failure by the government to retain teaching personnel at tertiary institutions. The Ministries of Higher and Tertiary Education and Public Service have failed to come up with motivational means to stem movement of teaching personnel from learning institutions. This scenario is compromising the quality of education in the country and undermining the right to education. The realisation that education is now a reserve for the elite is disheartening To the residents' dismay most schools in Bulawayo performed badly as evidenced by poor Grade 7 and A' Level results. This has an effect on the candidates that tertiary institutes enrol.

District Administrators fail residents

Residents of Bulawayo have raised concerns that the offices of the five District Administrators and Provincial Administrator in the city are failing to do their work. Residents have questioned what District Administrators and the Provincial Administrator are doing in the face of continued deterioration of quality of services in government offices such as the passport office. Residents argued that the offices of District Administrators should be located within the districts they serve so that residents can let them know of the issues that affect them. There have always been misgivings that the roles of District Administrators are the same as those of the city council, hence clashes are bound to occur between the Provincial Administrator and the Town Clerk. Most disturbingly, residents in some of Bulawayo's wards do not even know that there are District Administrators in the city. This has cast a spotlight on the role that they are supposed to play in urban areas where their roles are not as clearly defined as in the rural areas.

Visit the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association fact sheet

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