Government to punish residents for Harare City Council’s failure to do its job

The Zimbabwe government will punish whole blocks for dumping, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has announced.

In a statement, the government has said, “This Provincial Blitz will target institutions, shop owners, companies, vendors, public transporters, the actual passengers and the general citizenry who violate the statutory requirements.

“Be warned that in residential areas there will be block ticketing of communities that have illegal dumps within their vicinity. So we urge all residents to clear illegal dumps in their areas as they face hefty tickets. This is meant to encourage communities to start protecting and caring about their own environments.”

While this looks like it makes, sense, that is people not dumping things, this is kicking the wrong horse here.

People are paying the Harare City Council to collect rubbish and said council is not doing this. Now the government is bringing its big stick mentality (punishment first) to the table.

There seems, as usual, no engagement with citizens as to the issues which affect them, defaulting the obsessive prescriptive attitude towards governance.

A walk around the avenues will show that areas which hhave become ‘dumping sites’ are generally where rubbish is meant to have been collected by the City Council. As this is not happening, it is accumulating and asking residents to clear these areas is to offer them no alternative as to where this rubbish should go.

We expect there to be another standoff as the City will say the government is overstepping the mark ad exerting undue influence in the running of the metropolis.