The training was stopped
shortly after lunch, half way through the module, as police officers suddenly
arrived and demanded to know who had sanctioned the meeting and why residents
were being taught specifically on local governance issues and not in other
areas.
A member of the BPRA
executive council Ms Ntombizodwa Khumalo, who was facilitating at the workshop
and is also the Vice Chairperson of BPRA, was asked to furnish the officers
with details of the programme and its donors.
When they police could
not get any satisfactory answers they instructed Khumalo to report to the
police station on Monday morning where they further told her to come back with
the coordinator of the BPRA to answer more question.
BPRA frequently holds
training meetings with residents in all of Bulawayo’s 29 wards covering various
areas of concern to them like the Environment Act, Gender Budgeting and Local
Governance laws amongst others.
BCC Imposes housing project on
Pumula Residents
Pumula residents residing at St
Peters, Robert Sinyoka and Methodist communities have been left helpless after
Bulawayo city council officials once again told them that 197 families from Killerney
and Trenance squatter camps would be brought to live amongst them as soon as an
International Organisation of Migration (IOM) housing project is completed.
In February, the same residents
rejected a proposal by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC )
in conjunction with the IOM to
resettle squatters from these areas, sighting that they too have been awaiting
stands from BCC in the same area
since 1998. They also raised concerns that the project could lead to a high
crime rate and conflict in the area as most people living in the squatter camps
are unemployed and not registered as citizens of Zimbabwe. While the project
still aims to settle 197 families, nothing was said in the latest meeting held
last Friday (18 May 2012) on whether the project still aimed to benefit 15
families already living in squalid conditions in Pumula.
In the latest meeting addressed
by the Mayor of Bulawayo and officials from IOM, truckloads of beneficiaries
from Killarney and Trenence were bussed in to be addressed together with their
new neighbours who were told that there was no going back on the project.
Although no mention was made of what would be done about the more than decade
long request for stands by the older residents
in the previous meeting the City Council Director of Housing and
Community Services, assured residents that there was abundant space in the area
and had also promised the that land would be allocated to them in the future. He
had also assured residents that the people to be resettled in the area had been
vetted and would pose no threat.
However, the BPRA chairperson for
ward 17 said it was said that since the last meeting people had been cowed into
accepting something the community as a whole had taken a stand to reject. He
said this time the residents were not even given an opportunity to air their
views to the mayor but just listened as they were told that new home owners
would be moving into the area.
While Bulawayo Progressive
Residents Association (BPRA) acknowledges efforts being made by the local authority
to resettle squatters and commends its strategic partnerships with donor
organisations in the quest to improve service provision in the city, the
association believes that this should be done after wide consultations with
residents. The association also believes that the council has been allocating
stands to people outside of its housing waiting list, which now runs beyond a
hundred thousand names, thereby leaving many residents who have followed proper
procedures and put their faith in the council stranded. BPRA calls on the city
fathers and mothers to seriously take steps to consult and engagement residents
on the housing issue before it blows out of control.
Regards
Information
Department
Bulawayo
Progressive Residents Association
Bus. Tel: +263 9 61196
Cell: +263 773 788 183
No comments:
Post a Comment