Politicisation Of Mbare Rubbish: ZANU PF Seize Ngarivhume's Initiative
The ZANU PF Harare Province Youth League on Friday morning embarked on a clean-up campaign exercise at Mbare Flats in Harare a few days after police arrested Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition leader, for cleaning the same area.
Ngarivhume, the leader of Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) party, and a former MDC Alliance principal, was arrested during a clean-up campaign in the same area on Tuesday.
His arrest came after the Officer Commanding Mbare District Chief Superintendent J. Mafoko barred the 31 July Movement from clearing filth in probably Harare’s dirtiest suburb.
But today, the Harare provincial youth executive members, led by their chairman Emmanuel Mahachi, who was accompanied by his deputy Golden Mavesera, Kudakwashe Masamvi secretary for Administration, Andrew Makahamadze, among others, conducted a clean-up exercise without any hindrance. The Herald quoted Mahachi as saying:
A lot of uncollected rubbish was piling up in Mbare vending sites. We decided to mobilise our fellow cadres and clean our city.
As the Youth League, we have decided that we will have a clean-up campaign every Friday of the week so that we keep the environment clean. As you are aware, there is a hive of activities, so we need to at least clean the area on a weekly basis.
We have mobilised a number of youths and the Mbare Flats residents to make sure we clean the environment. The area was prone to a cholera outbreak, but we have said, let’s clean up the flats, this is our home.
Meanwhile, in his letter addressed to the 31 July Movement coordinator, one Muridzo and dated 1 May 2021, Chief Superintendent Mafoko said:
Your notification letter to carry out a cleanup campaign between Matapi and Matererini Flats on 04 May 2021 and at the Vegetable Market on 07 May 2021 starting at 1000hrs to 1400 hours has been noted.
You are being advised that your application is not approved. This has been necessitated by the fact that the last time you held your campaign, you ended up politicizing the event by flashing banners with political information.
In view of the above, may you leave the cleaning exercise to the City of Harare to deal with.
