By Brighton Chiseva
The Masvingo urban house belonging to Zanu PF Member of parliament (MP) for Zaka South, Clemence Chiduwa who once served as deputy minister of finance and economic development, has become a symbol of the crumbling infrastructure as raw sewerage oozes at his Hillside residence unattended.
This is the house where Chiduwa and his wife, Fungai Maregedze who is also the chairperson of Zaka Rural District Council (RDC) stay, but the two powerful politicians have been forced to stay watching the sewer flooding their residence as council takes no action.
The sewer which is now flowing to other houses is now a cause for concern as some residents from that area have been showing signs and symptoms of typhoid this week.
“Several people in this street have been complaining of running stomachs, vomiting and weak joints. We have some residents who went to the clinic and are suspected to have typhoid. We call upon the Council’s health department to attend to this issue as a matter of urgency,” a resident revealed to TellZim News.
Contacted for comment on the situation, Masvingo City Mayor Alec Tabe said he was not aware of the situation but promised that his engineering team will attend to the sewer burst as soon as possible.
“I was not aware of the situation but have forwarded to the engineering department so they will attend to the situation soon,” Tabe told TellZim News.
Sources from the area said the situation has been like that for almost three weeks now.
Efforts to get a comment from Chiduwa were futile as he did not respond to the questions sent to him by TellZim News. Instead of responding to the questions, Chiduwa forwarded the questions to ‘his favourite’ journalist who works for another media house. The journalist later reached out to TellZim.
Chiduwa’s wife, however, confirmed to TellZim News that the situation has been like that for close to three weeks now.
“The situation is like that for years whenever it rains but council cannot find a permanent solution to the problem. As of now, it has been like this for more than three weeks and council has not attended to the problem,” said Maregedze.
“We heard the sewerline was put in place for a certain number of households but the number of houses multiplied by more than 10 so the pipes are being overwhelmed and these are the results,” Maregedze added.
Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) Spokesperson Godfrey Mutimba said council should find lasting solutions to the sewer challenges and be mindful of the population growth as they plan.
“We urge city council to improve the city sewer reticulation system to meet the new population demand and even plan for future population boom otherwise residents will be affected health wise,” said Mutimba.
Masvingo City Health and Environmental Services Director Suzane Madamombe told TellZim News that they had not recorded any typhoid case in town nor any suspected case. She also urged residents to go to any of the council clinics if they suspect any typhoid case so that they get medical attention.
“We have not recorded any confirmed or suspected case of typhoid as of now. I want to urge residents to report to any of our clinics if there is any suspected case so that we do tests,” said Madamombe.
