Community Radio Harare recently published this:

As water shortages continue to worsen in many Harare suburbs, some mandimbandimbas have taken charge of local boreholes demanding that each resident must pay $1 to access the borehole water.

Several residents who spoke to Talking Harare confirmed that the mandimbandimbas were terrorizing them and taking advantage of the water crisis by demanding money. ‘Yes it is true that the mandimbandimbas are asking us to pay $1 per resident for us to access UNICEF boreholes that are the only source of water in Highfield. For example, at Highfield Satellite Clinic this situation has been going on for over a week now and these people seem to be untouchable once again as nothing is being done to stop them,’ said Mrs Faith Madondo of Highfield.

When Talking Harare visited Mbare, it noticed the mandimbandimbas controlling hundreds of residents who were trying to draw water from a mass tap near Mbare Netball Complex. Residents were being asked to pay ‘maintenance’ fees for the water tap which is apparently owned by council. The situation was similar at a borehole near Budiriro 2 Primary School and other suburbs like Glen Norah, Dzivarasekwa and Glen Norah. Those who were failing to pay were turned away and denied access to water.

The mandimbandimbas were recently chucked out of kombi ranks where they were forcing transport operators to pay them fees which were not justified since all bus termini in Harare are owned by Harare city council. Police and soldiers moved in to remove them following incessant complaints by members of the public, kombi operators and stakeholders that these were becoming a law unto themselves and causing havoc to the travelling public and transport business.

Meanwhile, some touts who were removed from kombi ranks are slowly trickling back after council failed to swiftly move in and reclaim its termini. Talking Harare observed that at Copacabana, Market Square and Fourth Street, the illegal touts are coming back and causing confusion once again.

This entry was posted on October 5th, 2012 at 3:09 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Activism, Governance, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.