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Yvonne Ncube, Features Reporter
The deliberate destruction of public property has over the years had adverse impacts on the urban and rural public space.

Damage caused by vandalism is big in many African countries. Every year huge public budgets are spent on the repair of the property that would have been vandalised.

Generally, vandalism is motivated by malicious greed, by the wish to draw attention to a particular condition but mostly due to misguided playfulness.  This delays implementation of new projects and better facilities. Also, it causes colossal losses of public funds.

Since public property in any community is owned by members of that society and a form of national capital, any destruction will be a loss to that community.

Responsible authorities have been from end to end criticised for failing to deliver critical services to stakeholders amid accusations over misappropriation of funds.

In Zimbabwe, councils, National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), TelOne and Zesa among others have been targets of such accusations.

For years the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has been under fire from ratepayers over failure to meet standards regarding rehabilitation of roads, water supply, sewer reticulation and refuse collection among others.

Residents especially in high density suburbs are sitting on a health time-bomb as effluent continues to flow from burst pipes into their homes, leaving them prone to water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid.

The city was recently hit by a third outbreak of diarrhoea in less than a year with more than a hundred cases being reported in high-density suburbs of Emganwini. In June last year, there was an outbreak in Luveve suburb which killed 13 people and infected nearly 2 000 residents.

The outbreak was a result of raw sewage which had contaminated drinking water.

Fingers have been pointed at the council for failing to deliver services but a blind eye has been turned to negligence in the form of vandalism by some residents.

The city has witnessed rapid vandalism of infrastructure, municipal property and road signs. The municipality also suffers a lot of damage through theft of manhole covers, theft or damage of water meters and drains that are blocked by all kinds of items thrown into them.

In a suspected case of infanticide, a baby last month was flushed into a toilet leading to a sewer burst in Bulawayo’s Makokoba suburb. At the end of the day if the burst sewer is not attended to, the BCC takes the blame for irresponsible residents.

In June, BCC spent over US$60 000 in repairing traffic lights that were destroyed during the violent demonstrations of January 2019.

Although vandalism does not affect the cost of municipal services and rates negatively it reduces the money available for other community projects.

Those huge sums of money spent repairing damaged property could be used for other progressive projects in the city such as repairing roads that have become impassable for motorists or patching potholes that have become a menace with some causing accidents that have taken away lives.

BCC corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said:

“Vandalism increases the maintenance costs of the City of Bulawayo. The city is grappling with inadequate maintenance materials which further cause delays in responding to maintenance calls. This is also because consumers owe the city more than $1,1 billion. Residents are advised not to abuse the sewer system, since in most cases objects found in blockages should not be found in the sewer system.”

“BCC conducts awareness campaigns in various communities to encourage residents to desist from vandalising municipal infrastructure. When found damaging municipal infrastructure the city will institute legal action.”

Last month, the NRZ joined forces with the police on a campaign against vandalism of railway infrastructure.

Vandalism especially by gold panners is reportedly costing the NRZ millions of dollars annually.

NRZ public relations manager Mr Nyasha Maravanyika told Chronicle that the parastatal has lost about $3,6 million through gold panning related vandalism of infrastructure and theft of copper cables in the past four years.

“You will find that the railway line rests on big holes and this affects the railway line as there will be no balance and at the end of day, we lose millions in terms of money and lives are lost as well. The NRZ has taken a proactive role in terms of alerting the Government about the illegal gold panning. Let’s also take note that in terms of the Railways Act, no human activities should be done at least 45 metres from either side of the railway line. These illegal gold panners are right along the railway line, sometimes they even take away some of our rail infrastructure.”

Despite laws prohibiting acts that cause damage to public infrastructure, such vandalism activities have remained on the rise.

TelOne managing director Mrs Chipo Mutasa said vandalism and theft of copper cables have hit TelOne’s operations, resulting in the firm losing over $50 million in revenue in the past year.

“Network vandalism has become rampant nationwide affecting TelOne’s service provision, especially for our voice and broadband services, which we call ADSL. You find out that a lot of copper cables are being stolen and taken to the black market where they are sold. In dollar terms, more than $50 million has been lost this year due to copper cable vandalism and theft. As a result, more than 50 000 subscribers were affected last year alone,” she said.

Zesa has also not been spared from vandalism. The company has faced criticism from both its domestic and industrial clients for poor service yet vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure which may contribute to power blackouts by residents has been ignored.  At a time when the economy is facing challenges, vandalism and theft cause supply disruptions to continue.

At least four transformers are stolen every day while hundreds of kilometres of power cables are being vandalised amid limited resources to repair and replace them, authorities have said.

In recent months, Zesa has been accused of poor service by both businesses and consumers, citing an increasing number of outages and delays in repairing problems at a time when electricity tariffs are rising.

Zesa acting western region manager Engineer Lloyd Jaji said the power utility is struggling to replace copper cables with aluminium ones as a result of inadequate resources. It is alleged that some of the company’s employees are collaborating with the vandals.

Lately the Government has been working on the amendment of the Copper Control Act to stiffen penalties for illegal possession of copper cables without a valid licence.

Those who will be found in possession of copper cables without a certificate of origin will face a 10-year prison sentence without an option of a fine, in a move meant to prevent vandalism of utilities.

Strategies to prevent vandalism need to be introduced if the problem is to be fully addressed. Such strategies may include stringent laws to bring those involved in vandalism and theft of public property to book. Co-operation, involvement and support of the community are essential too if the problem of vandalism and theft is to be addressed effectively. — @SeehYvonne