Bulawayo deputy mayor Mlandu Ncube has suggested that the local authority should engage funeral service companies operating in the city to assist in the rehabilitation of roads leading to cemeteries as part of their corporate social responsibility.
This is after Ward 15 councillor Febbie Msipha had told councillors during a full council meeting held on Wednesday that most of the roads leading to cemeteries were in a bad state, particularly the road leading to Luveve cemetery.
Most of the roads in the city are in a deplorable state and have been worsened by the recent rains received in the country.
“I had attended a funeral, there is a huge pothole on the road leading to Luveve cemeteries, please go and check this road,” she said.
“It is embarrassing as a councillor when you attend a funeral and residents complain of those potholes, it really becomes difficult for a councillor.”
She appealed to the Environmental Management and Engineering Service Committee to inspect the road and take action, “We should respect those people when they are going to their resting places”
The committee chairperson Alderman Siboniso Khumalo said they will urgently fix the road.
“We will try by the end of this week to fix the pothole because it is used by everyone, I wouldn’t wish to use such a road too, we will try to fix that road very fast.
However, Deputy Mayor Mlandu Ncube queried why the department was not engaging funeral service companies.
“I think there is too much potential for stakeholders that your department is not taking advantage of, those funeral parlours have a lot of money and they can just be engaged to assist us, we have so many funeral parlours,” said Ncube.
“I am not saying thus the law that is saying that but it’s a fact that we are incapacitated, we are carrying a begging bowl, why are we not asking the funeral parlours to assist us, they are making a killing from our residents, some of them are making too much money, so why are we not approaching them,” he said.
