THE alarming increase in drug and substance abuse among youths in Bulawayo has been blamed on the city's failure to provide empowerment programmes.
This is revealed in the Bulawayo City Council's latest minutes on Gender, Safety and Health Section Performance Report.
According to the minutes from the latest full council meeting, Councillor Mmeli Thobeka Moyo sought clarification on the 3 567 vending bays that have been allocated to potential vendors in the city.
“If the city residents had benefited, the number of residents affected by drug and substance abuse would have decreased,” Moyo said.
“The youthful residents in the city are unemployed and did not benefit from the city’s empowerment programmes. This has led to increased stress levels resulting in drug and substance abuse.”
Councillor Felix Takunda Madzana concurred with his colleague.
“If all council resolutions had been implemented, some of the challenges would have been resolved. Previous councillors also complained about delays in resolution implementations,” he said.
“Donors have also been subjected to a lot of bureaucracy, resulting in council losing a lot of donations. Ward proposals for various projects to be funded by the 3% ward retention have been submitted and up to now, nothing have been done.”
- Revisiting Majaivana’s last show… ‘We made huge losses’
- Edutainment mix: The nexus of music and cultural identity
- ChiTown acting mayor blocks election
- Promoter Mdu 3D defends foreigners 30 minute set
Keep Reading
Madzana supported the proposal of a special meeting to deal with the 3% ward retention activities and projects.
According to the minutes, Councillor Nkosinathi Hove Mpofu also supported the call for the meeting.
“Cowdray Park has a lot of service delivery challenges. There are a lot of illegal vending activities in the suburb because no vending bays have been allocated in Cowdray Park," Hove Mpofu noted.
"Development is very slow in Cowdray Park because of delays in the implementation of resolutions."
Bulawayo mayor David Coltart encouraged councillors to be proactive and push management to implement critical council resolutions
He applauded councillor Lizzy Sibanda, ward 27 and council managers, who implemented a council resolution made some time ago to upgrade a water delivery pipe in Pumula South.
"This has since been done and the affected 49 households are now receiving water. Councillors should point out resolutions in their respective wards that have not been implemented," Coltart said.
"It is also the role of committees to check if council resolutions have been implemented."
Bulawayo is battling rising cases of drug and substance abuse; at the same time struggling to address the issue of overcrowding of vendors, some of them operating illegally mostly at night, amid concerns that they are littering the central business district.
This, council said was straining its service delivery resource base.
