Mayor bemoans ‘dirty’ Bulawayo

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BULAWAYO mayor Martin Moyo on Friday bemoaned the accumulation of garbage in the city and urging residents to adopt a habit of cleaning up their surroundings and depositing rubbish in refuse bins.

BULAWAYO mayor Martin Moyo on Friday bemoaned the accumulation of garbage in the city and urging residents to adopt a habit of cleaning up their surroundings and depositing rubbish in refuse bins.

MTHANDAZO NYONI OWN CORRESPONDENT

Moyo was speaking at the official launch of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church’s two-week urban evangelism “Mission to Big Cities” crusades at the City Hall’s car park where the church handed over 53 branded refuse bins to council to place around the central business district.

The crusades started yesterday at the church’s 356 sites dotted all around Bulawayo’s suburbs and are set to end on September 27.

There was a lot of rubbish around the city and Moyo urged residents to take personal responsibility for the trash that has made the streets of Bulawayo an eyesore .

He said people needed to have some pride by not littering as it was costly hiring manpower to clean up the streets and ditches where residents seem to liberally dump litter in.

“It is very important that the SDA church has given bins to Bulawayo. You should also preach the word to people to keep themselves and the city clean as cleanliness is next to godliness. Bulawayo was once celebrated as the cleanest city in the world, but that has been lost and we have to work together to re-establish this status,” Moyo said.

He said parents should teach their children to always maintain cleanliness and avoid dumping litter everywhere by making use of bins in their localities.

He aged residents to take pride in their neighbourhoods by organising more community clean-ups to eliminate illegal dump sites created by residents through irresponsible disposal of rubbish.

Such sites harboured cockroaches and rodents which affected some neighbourhoods and this had enormous implications on the health of local communities.

The accumulation of rubbish on the streets of Bulawayo and particularly in back alleys had provided breeding places for mosquitoes.

Moyo appealed to residents to pay keen attention to the way they kept their general surrounding and houses.

“Council is asking residents of all local communities to assist in efforts to keep Bulawayo clean and healthy by keeping the city’s streets and their premises free from rubbish or littering.

If residents exercise responsibility, council hires fewer people just to sweep the streets and this will save us a lot of money that could be used elsewhere to improve our services,” Moyo said.

The SDA West Zimbabwe Conference (WZC) president pastor Jefrety Sibanda said Bulawayo should not only be cleaned of litter, but also reclaimed for Jesus.

WZC is the organisation that administers SDA churches in Matabeleland North and South, Bulawayo as well as parts of that Midlands.

“We are saying King Jesus must be in the city. As from September 14 (yesterday) Jesus is coming to reclaim Bulawayo.

Bulawayo is full of questions and hopelessness but we are saying Jesus is there to restore her,” Sibanda said.

The SDA WZC health director pastor Simange Ngwenya said the crusades would also include issues of hygiene and health teachings as the church believed cleanliness was next to godliness and a truly healthy individual could worship God in spirit and in truth.

Ngwenya said there would health expos throughout the two-week crusades where health professionals would assist people with a variety of health issues.

There would be free consultations and assistance by doctors for ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cervical cancer and dental health, among others.

WZC chief financial officer Khanyisani Malufu said the refuse bins were donated by church members as part of their efforts to keep the city clean.

Churches would also be placing bins at certain areas in their localities such as shopping centres to help keep Bulawayo clean.

The launch started with a street march from TM Hyper past the Tredgold Building that houses the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Court, the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo statue next the the Main Post Office before ending at the City Hall.