Rutendo Chirume
Masvingo City Council has over the past year misled residents, ratepayers and government that it has stopped using the old dumpsite in Runyararo West, and that garbage disposal had now moved to the new landfill at Cambria Farm.
This is contained in the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) report which was released recently.
City of Masvingo actually invited Vice President Kembo Mohadi to cut the ribbon at the new landfill in June 2023.
It has now emerged that the exercise was intended to just mislead the public and the country’s leadership, as the municipality still dumps enormous tonnes of garbage at the old dumpsite.
ZHRC carried out investigations after complaints were raised by the Masvingo Residents Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) and former Ward 3 Councillor Roki Kamuzonda.
“From the facts given by complainants, Runyararo West dumping site poses as health danger to the surrounding community thus violating the environmental rights. Section 70 of the Environmental Management Act stipulates that,” the report partly reads.
“Further, ZHRC investigated whether the right to administrative justice as provided for in Section 68(1) and (2) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, read jointly Section (3)(1) of the Administrative Justice Act (Chapter 10: 28), was violated.
“From this, the facts given the complainant’s right to administrative justice was violated, because from the feedback ZHRC got from EMA, MCC was supposed to migrate from the dumping site system to the landfill system in 2012. However, the were yet to complete the construction of one about 12 years later, leaving the residents on the receiving one despite the fact that administrative should be prompt,” the report further reads.
Speaking to EnviroPress, MURRA spokesperson Godfrey Mtimba said City of Masvingo’s conduct was dishonest and showed no respect for residents and ratepayers.
“Council must be held to account for the misleading information and lies. That they even invited the country’s Vice President to officially open a non-existent landfill is a betrayal of public trust.
“We are extremely disappointed the council leadership is comfortable with its continued use of the dumpsite which is a few metres from people’s houses,” said Mtimba.
When contacted for comment, Mayor Aleck Tabe said the landfill worked for a few weeks but was abandoned after an accumulation of waste.
“A landfill is constructed into cells with an expected lifespan of at least three years per each cell. With the pace at which we were dumping waste without compacting it, the cells’ lifespan would be reduced by two years. We then then agreed to stop using the landfill until we procure compactors,” said Tabe, adding that landfill compactors were very expensive vehicles which council could not easily afford.
However, Tabe a few weeks ago took delivery of a Toyota Fortuner GD6 procured by the council at a cost of US$85 000, while Town Clerk Edward Mukaratirwa drives a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado VX-L procured for US$251 816.
A brand new Bomag BC 473 EB-3 landfill compactor costs R4.4 million in South Africa, which is equivalent to US$251 116. A pre-owned Al-Jon ADV500 costs around R1.2 million, which is equivalent to US$66 852 an amount which is far less that the value of Tabe’s car.
