BULAWAYO City Council has expressed reservations over expending resources to a project spearheaded by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa to transform a refugee centre at Chambuta in Chiredzi into a rehabilitation facility for street kids.
Government first announced plans to transform the refugee
centre into a facility for children in 2015, but the project failed to
take-off.
Auxillia, through her Angel of Hope Foundation and the
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry, is now spearheading the
project.
Latest council minutes show that the ministry on October 22
sent an SOS to the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) seeking material and financial
support to ensure the project becomes a success, but councillors turned down
the request.
“Discussion ensued and councillor Mlandu Ncube was
concerned that Bulawayo had a lot of responsibilities that it was failing to
fulfil. Council was facing a lot of financial challenges. He was against the
idea to pledge assistance to renovate the home,” the council minutes read in
part.
“Council could only assist in terms of painting the block.
Alderman Siboniso Khumalo shared the same sentiments with Ncube, saying that in
Bulawayo there were homes which council was failing to assist as well as other
service delivery responsibilities it could not meet.”
Bulawayo street kids are housed at Emthunzini Wethemba, but
the facility faces viability challenges, forcing the homeless to escape back to
the streets.
Town clerk Christopher Dube, however, argued that council
had a responsibility to pledge assistance in the spirit of the Urban Councils
Association of Zimbabwe.
“It was, therefore, resolved to recommend that the council
be granted authority to pledge assistance in the form of painting the block
that it adopted at Chambuta Children’s Home.”
In its SOS letter, the ministry said it was mandated under
the Children’s Act (Chapter 5:06) to care for and protect the homeless through
the Department of Social Welfare.
“It is in this light that all urban councils are being
called upon to commit their resources towards renovations and future
maintenance of Chambuta Children’s home to ensure sustainability of the
project,” the ministry wrote to the BCC.
“Please note that your commitment in the project will leave
its mark in improving the lives of this vulnerable group from our communities
taking into cognisance the fact that the children currently housed at the
institution had been living and working on the streets of all urban centres
countrywide.” Newsday
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