Council suspends services CC

Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Correspondent 

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has suspended emergency services and refuse collection this week citing shortage of fuel.

In a statement yesterday, the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube said other services that have been affected include water and sewer faults. 

“The City of Bulawayo would like to advise members of the public that there may be an interruption in collection of refuse city wide this week due to shortage of fuel. Other services that are affected include water, sewer faults and ambulances,” said Mr Dube in the statement.

He said the local authority’s Ambulance Services will not be able to respond speedily to calls. 

“The City of Bulawayo will be prioritising calls and responding to critical emergencies in the following manner – road traffic accidents, undiagnosed incidences at public places/home, maternity cases referred from municipal clinics, maternity cases from other places and other incidences with trained medical person in attendance. In the event that an ambulance is required, the public is advised to use alternative means of transport until the situation improves,” said Mr Dube.

A 19-year-old woman who died at the Bulawayo 2019 Shutdown at Queens Sports Club on Sunday morning could not get an ambulance according to witnesses who said when they phoned for one, they were told the vehicles had no fuel. 

Mr Dube said BCC was working on ensuring speedy restoration of normal services encouraging residents to keep the city clean. 

“Residents are encouraged to keep the City clean and desist from dumping refuse in open spaces. Uncollected refuse should be kept within household properties and will be collected when refuse collection resumes,” said Mr Dube.

At the beginning of this month, the BCC stopped refuse collection services in some parts of the city due to fuel shortages. 

Mr Dube said then that council faced a myriad of challenges which were mainly as a result of failure by residents to settle their bills, late approval of council budget, hyper- inflation and foreign currency demands by suppliers.

Early this year, BCC Finance director Mr Kempton Ndimande said council requires 80 000 litres of diesel and 50 000 litres of petrol per month for its fleet. — Follow on Twitter @bonganinkunzi.

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