The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has said that the country’s economic hardships and lack of capital funding is delaying the construction of the Entumbane library, which the community has sought to have over several decades.
In a press statement yesterday the city council senior public relations officer Nesisa Mpofu said more funding is needed to enable the construction of the library
“More than 350 000 United States dollars is needed to construct a community library in Entumbane high density suburb,” said Mpofu.
“ The challenges are lack of funds to procure the necessary inputs and that has affected the speedy construction of the library.”
In 2017 the local authority and the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) made an arrangement to refurbish a temporary building to house the library but it did not have adequate space to accommodate a large number of people.
Mpofu revealed that the designated library stand was leased to the former Entumbane councilor Prince Dube in 2013.
“Dube is now using the area which is more than a 1000 square meters as a car park and to conduct his welding businesses.”
Mpofu said despite the financial challenges, council is committed to constructing libraries in new suburbs including Entumbane and other old suburbs without community libraries.
School children from the area travel all the way to Mpopoma and Njube suburbs to in order access library services.
Some residents in Entumbane suburb who spoke to CITE on Thursday said the library would help both school children and the adults .
“ Its hard four our children to develop interest in reading because they have to travel long distances to Njube or Mpopoma Library, and also this affects students that want to study for exams.” said one resident Oriel Tshuma.
“It is also dangerous for primary kids to cross the ever busy Luveve road because they might end up being hit by a car trying to cross to Njube or Mpopoma where there are libraries”.
