Bulawayo residents are lobbying for the registration of associations under the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC), arguing that the move will go a long way in mobilising resources to fight for their rights in the city.
In an interview with Southern Eye, Bulawayo United Residents Association chairperson Winos Dube said residents felt shortchanged on a number of issues bedevilling the city.
He said the association needed to carry out awareness campaigns to educate residents about their rights.
“We feel shortchanged on several issues, for example, the water billing system during water shedding, when bills come, they are always ballooning, yet they would have spent
several weeks without water,” Dube said.
He said CPC would receive funding in the 2026 budget for residents’ associations to carry out awareness campaigns if they were registered under the commission to qualify for funding or to get the resources necessary during the campaigns.
Dube said the residents needed to lobby council to improve service delivery, citing a certain ward that spent two years without getting water, but it received high water bills every month.
“We are having challenges again with the road infrastructure in the city. There are a lot of potholes on the roads, especially those leading from the main roads to the residential areas, either in low or high-density suburbs. This becomes a hazard to the motorists,” he said.
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Dube said consumers were not aware of their rights, adding that they were on the ground educating residents.
“We are calling for a modernised system. The city fathers have to be innovative despite the economic challenges bedevilling the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association chairperson Michael Ndiweni said the business community should consider the safety of consumers by avoiding installing devices at their shop entrances.
“By installing these devices, every consumer who goes into shops is suspected of being a thief. This violates people’s rights and those who are disabled are facing challenges to do business with most of the shops in the city,” he said.
Ndiweni said banks were in the habit of causing people to spend a lot of time in queues.
“Some of them are the elderly. They are subjected to harsh weather conditions trying to access their money and this is a violation of their rights, which consumers need to be aware of,” he said.
Ndiweni emphasised the importance of availing consumer indexes, saying this helps in ranking our country within the region so that consumers can get better services.
