The Sunday Mail
THERE was a near tragic incident outside Herald House in the capital on Tuesday, when a woman was narrowly missed by a speeding kombi after she stepped on a banana skin and fell during her flight to safety.
Though disgraced after people caught a glimpse of her curves and other body contours, the woman sucked her teeth, dusted herself and continued with her journey as if nothing had happened.
Sadly, such happenings have become routine on the streets of Harare — where vendors, shoppers and everyone else seem to be competing to throw litter everywhere.
It is now not unusual to walk on pavements littered with diapers, discarded containers of illicit brews, banana peels, plastics, flower stems, pieces of paper and even sanitary pads, among a host of things a human being can discard.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, alleyways and corners of most buildings have been turned into public toilets, where people relieve themselves with reckless abandon. Such occurrences call for the city council to enforce regulations on litterbugs to bring sanity back on the streets.
It is now even worse with people roasting meat, maize cobs and groundnuts, and even selling vegetables in once-revered places like First Street.
“Hapana yekutamba mudhara. Ndiyo yacho itoripo apa, ndingadiniwo zvangu? I am not the first one doing this,” a bloke who was relieving himself in a flower bed in Africa Unity Square told this writer straight in the face.
“My friend, the public toilets are charging an arm and a leg, so we have no option but to use the alleyways.
“That is the way of the city. Tinotamba iri kurira,” quipped another vendor, who could be seen throwing banana peels into a storm water drain.
Did you know that some water valves and meter boxes in the capital have since been turned into storage places for fruits and vegetables?
Cobblers, shoe polishers and stamp makers who ply their trade on the streets of the capital also do not take the materials they use home after a day’s work.
All they do is stash them in selected storm water drains and make their way home.
“My friend, this business of providing services on the streets of the capital needs someone who is organised and knows where to keep their goods. Imagine if I was to take these things I use home daily! I would always be carrying heavy loads. Tinongotamba inoita kuti vana vadye, bhururu,” said one cobbler.
Gentle reader, the monthly clean-up done every first Friday of the month needs to be buttressed with massive enforcement of by-laws against littering to achieve the intended results because there is now just litter everywhere.
No wonder whenever it rains, some streets are flooded.
It is even worse in downtown Harare, where self-styled mechanics ply their trade. At times, one can find someone doing an engine overhaul or panel beating a car on the street.
When it is time to go home, the mechanics simply stash their dirty overalls and other materials they use in storm water drains before leaving.
Only God knows the exact value of fruits, vegetables, spanners, machinery and even cash stashed in the capital’s storm water drains.
Inotambika mughetto.
Feedback: rosenthal.mutakati@ zimpapers.co.zw
