Cde Sibanda said the collapse of the city’s road network,
sewerage system and high levels of vendors, most of them trading at
undesignated areas, was not acceptable.
Speaking to Chronicle on Friday on the side-lines of a
National Building Society (NBS) engagement with contractors, Cde Sibanda said
the opposition-run local authority shut down noble working systems that used to
benefit residents through employment creation.
For instance, he
said council used to procure metal dustbins from Monarch but suddenly it opted
for plastic bins resulting in the company retrenching a sizable workforce.
The retrenched
workers, he said form the bulk of vendors.
BCC municipal police at the Large City Hall after the raid
on 5th Avenue
Cde Sibanda said
Zanu PF is not to be blame for the decay in the city and the growing number of
vendors whom council is failing to control.
“It’s the city council that started a programme that every
weekend they exposed their ground in front of Revenue Hall for people to come
and trade from there. The city council initiated that programme, it is not the
people from the suburbs, it is the council,” said Cde Sibanda.
“Now the city council is failing to control that which it
started. That is not the fault of my party.
If council is
pointing fingers at my party, picture this, council was using rubbish
collecting bins that were manufactured by Monarch, a Bulawayo based company.
“They got rid of that system and introduced plastic
containers and Monarch had to retrench almost 1000 of workers, that’s the fault
of the city council.”
He added, “Go and
check the wage bill in 2000 and the number of workers council had then and
compare to what council has today, it has reduced from 100 percent to almost 10
percent.
“All the people that were employed by council are now
unemployed. Those former workers were contributing pensions, and the pension
funds were getting a lot of money from council workers that is not happening
now.”
Cde Sibanda said BCC has privatised most of the core
businesses that used to fund programmes.
“For instance, the estates in the western part of the city
in Old Pumula and Aisleby Farm, those were projects that were bringing money to
council. Now those projects have been privatised or leased out including beer
gardens.
“Those entities that council was supposed to collect money
from have disappeared and council cannot come up with programmes or plans that
residents can live from,” he said..
On the road network, he said it is unacceptable that the
roads have deteriorated to existing levels. Chronicle
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