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AT least 24 Bulawayo City Council workers were injured while on duty as of the end of April this year, with February recording the highest injuries due to skirmishes with illegal vendors, a senior official has said.

Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, said this during belated World Day for Safety and Health at Work commemorations held at the Famona Fire Station in the city last week.

This year’s theme for the commemorations was “A Safe and Healthy Working Environment Is A Fundamental Principle and Right At Work”.

The annual event is commemorated globally on April 20 to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases.  Mr Dube said 21 percent of the injured workers were females while 79 percent were males.

“As of end of April this year, 24 of our staff members were injured on duty. The month of February recorded the highest of number of injuries due to attacks on council municipal police details in their attempt to contain illegal activities and bring order in the city,” he said.

Mr Dube said the Covid-19 pandemic was also a challenge in the past three years, as council employees were exposed to the disease while discharging their duties.

“Our workers continue to be exposed to Covid-19 while they are on duty. As we commemorate this day, we remember all municipal workers who passed away in their line of duty. 

“More recently, a colleague and fire fighter lost his life while delivering service to the city. 

“We remember their selfless service to Bulawayo,” he said.

The Town Clerk said council is striving to contain organisational injury frequency rate, which stands at three against the accepted standard of one.

“This special day comes at a time council is working towards being ISO 4501 certified since its adoption of occupational safety and health management system in January 2022. This was in response to national 

systems drive in terms of the Zimbabwe National Safety and Health policy of 2021,” he explained.

Mr Dube said council workers in various departments and services such as water, sanitation and hygiene, building and road construction among others, face the challenges of being exposed to hazardous chemicals and radiation as the municipality strives to become a leading smart and transformative city by 2024.

He added that the local authority has adopted a new approach in doing business as part of efforts to realise “Vision Zero” which is meant to reduce accidents at the workplace to zero.

“We are striving to make work stations safe and healthy although there has been some unfortunate incidents where we had accidents on workplace which contributed to loss of life,” he said. — New Ziana