Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni confirmed to NewsDay that Harare City Council has stopped collecting garbage in some residential areas because of a shortage of refuse collection vehicles after some broke down. He also said that council is making efforts to acquire a new fleet of refuse trucks to cover all the city’s 30 wards.
Said Manyenyeni:
For a year now, we have been operating with 22 trucks and maybe the figure has gone down in the past weeks. We should have 46 trucks running so that each ward has a service truck, but because most of them are down, we are now forced to use the few available. We are in the process of acquiring 20 trucks so that we can be up and about. We have been given the greenlight to borrow for the procurement of the trucks and the tender has since been awarded. What is left is just some formalities.
Last month, Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere and his Finance counterpart, Patrick Chinamasa approved council’s request to borrow $29 million for procurement of service vehicles.
More: NewsDay