BPRA Activities (11 and 12 February 2012)

Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) held three consultative meetings on Saturday 11 February 2012 and one on Sunday 12 February 2012 in Nkulumane, Pumula South, Pumula Old and Emakhandeni, respectively. The meetings were aimed at awarding residents the opportunity to dialogue on issues affecting them and also to discuss service delivery in the various wards. Different issues were raised in the meetings. Residents raised concern over the rigorous process of acquiring documentation such as birth and deaths certificates, national identity cards and passports. Participants also expressed dismay that elderly residents and citizens are required to pay rates. They argued that there was a need for senior citizens to be charged lower rates than other residents and for arrangements to be made to protect them from water and electricity disconnections. They highlighted that elderly ratepayers were struggling because they do not have sources of income. Residents also complained about the failure of the local authority to engage in pest control resulting in mosquitoes breeding in large numbers and harassing residents.

Meanwhile, over the same weekend, BPRA also organised four training workshops that were held in Ward 3, 8, 20 and 23. The workshop focused on two modules, participatory budgeting and gender budgeting. The two modules that are part of the second phase of the Residents Leadership Development programme are aimed at empowering residents’ leaders with knowledge on how participatory and gender budgeting can lead to improved service delivery and acknowledgement of the needs of diverse groups in society such as orphans, women, people living with HIV, the poor and the elderly in provision of services.