Harare blasted for sleeping on the job In an interview, Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme said they had never promoted the use of spikes among their municipal officers when conducting their duties. 

Blessings Chidakwa Municipal Correspondent

Harare City Council has come under fire for its lacklustre approach to civil works, which has in some instances, caused serious accidents.

Council has been accused of not following through its work, especially when it comes to repairs of sewer and water mains, where workers need to dig to get to the fault area.

In most cases, particularly in the Central Business District (CBD), they have to dig up the tar and when they do so the workers leave deep pits uncovered without any proper warning signs for weeks even in cases where they would have attended to the fault.

In terms of pothole patching the council employees, in some cases, use gravel which is only useful for a short period.

The Herald news crew yesterday went around the cbd and observed various spots that have gone for days and even months without being attended to. At the intersection of Simon Muzenda Street (formerly Fourth Street) and Robert Mugabe Way, there is a hole that was dug in the middle of the road that has been left unattended for days, risking the lives both motorists and pedestrians.

At the corner of Harare Street and Samora Machel, council employees just filled up a pothole with gravel, which has since been displaced, leaving a bigger hole.

At the corner of Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and Harare Street, pedestrians are having to jump over a mini-stream created by treated water flowing from a burst pipe, which has not been attended to for months.

Council workers have also failed to attend to water bursts that occur periodically on the pavement along George Silundika near Econet First Street Mall shop.

Harare spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme blamed the issue on lack of coordination among council departments.

“We are improving on integration and coordination between our sister departments of water and works so that when the water teams work on a section of the road, the works department comes in immediately when work is completed,” he said.

“On those faults that take long to repair it might be because we might not have replacement parts in stock and at times the fittings require redesigning, which takes longer.”

Harare has over the years been on the receiving end of lawsuits after being sued for failing to fill in and patch potholes.

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