The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has moved quickly to rehabilitate some of its roads that were in a deplorable state following an outcry from residents.
Better Bulawayo, a local initiative launched operation #Gxumeka earlier this week to draw attention to the local authority on the bad road state.
Operation #Gxumeka saw residents transplanting shrubs and grass on potholes to push the local authority into action.
The local authority patched some of the potholes where the residents had planted shrubs.
In an interview with CITE, Khumbulani Maphosa, chairperson of the Initiative said they were pleased with the response from the council.
“We are happy that people took up the challenge and became part of operation #Gxumeka as some of them were transplanting green vegetables and grass. This has resulted in BCC responding to the issue and repairing some roads across the city,” said Maphosa.
He said the local authority should do its job diligently by ensuring it is the first to take initiative in repairing bad roads.
“We wish they could have seen the urgency of repairing roads,” said Maphosa.
“They should not wait for people to start acting before they do something, instead they should address the matter beforehand.”
He said BCC partly responded to the issue of potholes as filling them with patches is a temporary measure.
“These patches are only temporary and are bound to open if ever there will be rainfall or if the road is continuously used,” said Maphosa.
“The Council needs to come with up with a permanent solution that will ensure that roads are repaired”
The local authority this week revealed that it was failing to finance most of its projects due to financial challenges as most suppliers and service providers were now demanding payment in foreign currency.
