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Sukoluhle Ndlovu Midlands Correspondent
Gweru City Council, which has been grappling with refuse collection, says it will soon tender for two refuse trucks following complaints by residents over non-collection of garbage.

The hamstrung local authority which only has two refuse trucks, recently engaged community-based organisations to collect garbage.

Speaking during a full council meeting held last week, Gweru city engineering director Mr Robson Manatsa said the council would soon start the tender process as its two refuse trucks cannot accommodate all the city’s suburbs.

“We are facing a shortage of refuse trucks. At the moment they are not enough to cover all the suburbs and as a result some residents are complaining that they go up to two weeks with uncollected refuse.

“We have therefore decided to start a tender process to get two more refuse trucks because even the community-based organisations which we recently engaged seem to be failing to service most suburbs,” he said.

Engineer Manatsa said Denver Trading, which was awarded the tender to supply the council with a refuse truck, had not delivered.

“Some time in 2016, Denver Trading won a tender to supply us with a refuse truck, but they haven’t delivered yet. At some point the company was offering to give us an old model, but we rejected it since we had paid for the new model refuse truck. Such delays disrupt our service provision to the residents,” he said.

Answering to Ward 9 Councillor Gibson Fundira’s question as to why there is slow progress in road rehabilitation, Eng Manatsa said the local authority is facing financial challenges and they have resorted to prioritising important items like water treatment.

“For now we have suspended road rehabilitation because we have inadequate equipment to do so. We are currently having low revenue collection and we have resorted to prioritising important tasks like water treatment,” he said.