BULAWAYO Central Business District (CBD) has become any eyesore with heaps of uncollected garbage now a common sight along some avenues and streets.
The stink of uncollected garbage in sanitary lanes in the city and some residential areas has also become unbearable as council workers have not been collecting refuse owing to a strike action that has paralysed service delivery in the city.
Striking workers are demanding a living wage based on the poverty datum line which is pegged at $20 000.
The workers maintain that their job action would continue until their wage demands have been met.
NewZimbabwe.com Tuesday witnessed some brave residents negotiating their way past heaps of garbage.
At the city’s popular vegetable market in the CBD, a constant foul smell from heaps of garbage dumped on the roadside greets passersby.
Flies circulating above wet garbage are also now a common sight.
Remarked Mike Nhari, a manager with a local leading retail outlet, “We are appealing to the city council management and workers to find each other so that normalcy can be brought back to our beautiful country.
“People especially those staying in town are now openly disposing waste everywhere.”
Nhari said on Monday, the company was forced to source a private refuse vehicle to collect garbage which had accumulated in front of the shop.
Another resident, Mbonisi Dube urged police and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to arrest all those found littering the city.
“Service delivery in Bulawayo now poses the biggest threat to lives especially with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The city council and the workers should sit down as a matter of urgency and resolve this impasse before things get worse,” said Dube.
When reached for comment, the city’s deputy mayor Mlandu Ncube deliberately evaded the question on uncollected garbage, preferring to issue a curt response that council workers have now resumed their duties.
“Council workers are now back at work,” said Ncube without giving detail.