By Perpetua Murungweni
Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) in collaboration with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have taken Masvingo City Council to the High Court over the Runyararo West dumpsite which has been affecting residents in the area.
In the High Court application, MURRA is seeking the barring of Masvingo City Council or its workers from disposing waste at the dumpsite located in Runyararo West in terms of the provisions of the High Court Act Section 14 (chapter 7:06).
The residents body argues that due to the continued use of the dumpsite, residents are exposed to an unsafe environment which is hazardous to their health.
“Due to the continued existence and use of the dumpsite, residents in Runyararo West and in Masvingo in general are being exposed to a filthy and unsafe environment which is hazardous to their health. MURRA and its members, who are residents of Runyararo West, have a clear right in relation to a clean and safe environment.
“Masvingo City Council has been aware of the findings of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the recommendations of EMA to migrate from the dumping site system to landfill system since 2012 but it continues to make use of the dumpsite for waste disposal with impunity,” reads the application.
MURRA Director Anoziva Muguti said they took council to court because it has been over a decade now since they engaged council on the issue and no action was taken.
“We took council to the High Court because it’s now over a decade since we started engaging them with the issue of the dumpsite,” he said.
Muguti said while council seemed to be in agreement with MURRA on several occasions, in 2023 the local authority lied that the Cambria Farm landfill had started working.
“We have engaged council on several occasions but it is seems the landfill issue is not a priority to them, that is why we decided to approach the High court,” said Muguti.
Masvingo City Council secured 10 hectares of land on Cambria Farm which is on the western outskirts of the city for the establishment of the new landfill in 2019 and was set to move there by the end of October the same year.
Last year in September, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) released a report which revealed that council was violating environmental human rights and the right to administrative justice, years after the old dumpsite became cause for concern.
In October Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) petitioned Council over the dumpsite issue and its effects to the nearby residents. After the receiving the petition council promised to take the issue seriously and resolved to deploy municipal police so as to reduce some illegal activities carried out by some residents and to close the old dumpsite and open the Cambria farm dumpsite by end of last year.
Masvingo City Council in June 2023 invited Vice President Kembo Mohadi to officially open the landfill despite it not being functional until now
In October 2022, Acting City Engineer Kudzaishe Mbetu, said council was only left with construction of the site offices which was already underway.
He was quoted saying council was going to start using the landfill at the end of the same month, adding that three boreholes had been drilled but only the control borehole had been equipped.
