Ticking health time bomb in Harare, Zimbabwe

Water supply is erratic, council's rubbish compacters are nowhere near sight, open market stalls are selling foodstuffs nearly everywhere, flies are roaming 'without boundaries' everywhere from the toilets to the open canteens to the open market stalls, that's what it is to be in Mbare, Harare (formerly Salisbury)'s oldest township.

The township was established as (Harare Township) in 1907 by colonial white regime for what they referred to as the natives as bachelors’ quarters and yet today each cubicle measuring approximately twenty five square meters in Mbare flats caries between three and five families.

Can anyone figure this out? Since 1980, the flats have hardly received any attention from the authorities save for the fact that they have been used as political campaign tools by different political parties with Zanu(PF) having the upper hand as a ruling party since then.

If ever any water is available, the supply pipes are broken such that it does not reach the intended households and the sewerage pipes are broken and leaking without anyone attending to them.

An attempt by the world’s second richest man, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda through their foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates) to resuscitate the dilapidated housing structures housing an estimated 300 000 inhabitants has failed to bear any fruits with the interference by a political mafia group known as Chipangano led by a youth provincial chair person Jimu Kunaka from the country’s former ruling party Zanu (PF) which is part of the coalition government currently managing Zimbabwe.

The mafia group had reportedly demanded 51% stake in the refurbished houses presumably for the benefit of party members. This has been referred to as the “progressive militarisation and zanucisation of public facilities spearheaded by Chipangano,” by the Director of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), Mfundo Mlilo.

The foundation had offered US$5 million for the refurbishment but was reportedly later diverted to a similarly affected location of Dzivarasekwa popularly affectionately known as DZ.

One actually wonders how the estimated population of 300 000 people occupying the filthy location of Mbare is surviving in disease outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid which have resulted in the death of 4000 people in 2008 from cholera and reported more than 3000 cases of typhoid in 2012.

While the residents seem not to care, the authorities also seem to have the same feeling torwards the township with the political leaders only appearing and disappearing on the eve of elections, one wonders what criteria is used by the residents to elect their legislators and Councilors into political office.

“Since his election into office we have never seen our House of Assembly representative Piniel Denga some of the residents even do not know him, neither have we seen the Councilors doing anything meaningful, people have only voted because they did not approve of the party that was ruling then, it was not a poll based on the capabilities of the person being elected into office and as a result our plight remains the same,” one of the Mbare residents has charged.

- AfricaNews