'BCC turning a deaf ear to grievances raised by residents in Mabuthweni'

WARD 13 councillor Lot Siziba is accusing the Bulawayo City Council of turning a deaf ear to grievances raised by residents in Mabuthweni, his locality,  saying this has affected development in the suburb.

Addressing residents at a community meeting in the suburb, Siziba said there are a lot of challenges faced by Ward 13 residents but the local authority has not taken action to address their problems.

'I think our ward is discriminated. I presented our problems to council but its not honouring its promises. I reported that there are residents with leaking taps but up to date they have not attended to that issue.'

Clr Siziba highlighted the city council is always telling people about water shortages and low water levels in dams yet it does not want to preserve water by replacing taps.

'It is painful that our ward is ignored and this is negatively affecting us. Some residents don't have proper flushing systems in their toilets and this makes their lives difficult,' said Clr Siziba.

He noted residents in the area felt their ward is given less preference and attention as compared to other wards.

For instance, Clr Siziba said, other wards are having road works but in Ward 13 roads have been unattended.

'When we voice our problems, they should be attended to. It is disappointing that our roads are bad and they have not been fixed, unlike the case in other wards,' he lamented.

The councillor recalled that councillors, in a full council meeting, had agreed to choose residents with vehicles to be responsible for garbage collection within their wards and the selected ones are supposed to work with other members of the community.

'We were surprised to see people from Emganwini collecting our garbage before we even had the opportunity to choose residents from our ward. Our residents are also supposed to benefit from this programme. I do not understand why our garbage is collected by residents from another ward,' Clr Siziba said.

The councillor also mentioned that people in his ward are losing their houses to other people who are allocated by the city council.

He said people who usually lose their houses are mostly those who go to other countries for greener pastures leaving their houses with children or lodgers.

'I went to the Council to understand why those people are losing their houses and I found those houses allocated to different people. I asked the council to give back those houses to their rightful owners but nothing has been done about that,' said Clr Siziba.

Ward 13 consists of Iminyela, Mabuthweni, Pelandaba and Kelvin North suburbs.