Bulawayo rejects Richmond Landfill settlement plans

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has ruled out plans to regularise the informal settlement at Richmond Landfill, saying most of the people staying at the site are temporary waste collectors who have homes elsewhere in the city.

The council's director of Health Services, Dr Edwin Sibanda-Mzingwane, said the settlement around Ngozi Mine, also known as the Richmond Landfill site, was both informal and illegal but largely temporary.

He said the residents were mainly staying at the landfill to be closer to recyclable materials and buyers rather than because they needed permanent accommodation.

"There is a settlement around Ngozi Mine or the Richmond Landfill site, which is both informal and illegal. But it is also temporary. It exists as long as there is something being deposited at the landfill," said Sibanda-Mzingwane.

"We have no intention of regularising the settlement and making it permanent or improving it because we believe it is temporary."

The council estimates that about 1,500 people are linked to activities at the landfill, with some reportedly putting up makeshift shelters during the working week before returning to their homes at weekends.

Sibanda-Mzingwane said some of the waste collectors already owned homes in Bulawayo but chose to stay closer to the landfill because of the distance from their residences.

"Some of the people have houses within the city, but those houses are too far away from the landfill. To make it easier for them to get to the landfill, they put up shacks, collect recyclable valuables from the refuse and sell them from there because buyers come to collect from the site," he said.

"Some go away over the weekends to their proper houses and from Monday to Friday migrate back to their workplace."

He said the settlement was therefore expected to disappear once Richmond Landfill was decommissioned, as waste collectors would likely move to wherever the city establishes its next disposal site.

"They were at Hyde Park and I am sure they followed us to Richmond. Wherever we establish the next landfill, they will follow us there," he said.

Richmond Landfill was commissioned in 1994 and is the city's 12th refuse-disposal site.

Bulawayo previously used several other refuse-disposal sites, including the area now occupied by Sobukazi School grounds, which served as a disposal site between 1963 and 1970.

The city later moved its disposal operations to Hyde Park near Pelandaba Cemetery before establishing the Richmond Landfill site.