AN ELDERLY woman from Mabuthweni suburb, Bulawayo, who has piled so much junk in her house and sleeps on a sofa, was on Tuesday assisted by neighbours under supervision of Bulawayo City Council rangers to clear the house.
BY BENSON DUBE
The woman stays alone in a one-roomed house. Part of her stuff is three drums full of expired maize, broken down wardrobes packed with junk, all kinds of indescribable material and what could have been useful property once. During the clean-up, several rodents were killed. She initially resisted the operation and had to be calmed down with a lot of effort.
A neighbour, Moffat Ndebele, said three years ago he went to report the state of her living to the Mpopoma housing office which referred her to the Tshabalala office which has eventually come to clear the house.
“Three years ago we cleared rubbish on her yard with the help of the council after we went to report at Mpopoma housing office that referred us to Tshabalala. Gogo Moyo goes around picking junk and storing it posing danger to neighbours. A high risk of catching tuberculosis from her premises might not be farfetched,” Ndebele said.
Another neighbour Badanile Nkomazana said the council must clear all piled up refuse from her house.
“You can see for yourself what we removed so far from the yard. The house contains much more that simply has to be disposed of,” Nkomazana said.
Ward 13 councillor Lot Siziba said the old woman kept a lot of rubbish insisting people stole from her. Siziba indicated a longstanding campaign had been on to bring sanity to the woman’s house with various reports made to the health department which had not yielded positive results.
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“I know the woman. People know she keeps a lot of rubbish and she keeps saying people steal from her. I have been to council authorities reporting on rubbish spilling into my ward, but council employees do not want to take responsibility. They forget that they are employed by residents,” Siziba added
