Zimpapers Logo

Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
Pressure continues to mount on Masvingo City Council to urgently rehabilitate the city’s street lights, as incidents of muggings, unlawful entry and theft continue to rise.

The business community in the city has added its voice to the growing chorus for city council to engage partners to install an estimated 600 street lights needed to light up the city.

Cases of muggings in the city centre at night and unlawful entry and theft in the suburbs have been on the increase, with council taking the flak for inaction on restoring the city’s street lights.

Businessman Mr Benjamin Mazarire yesterday said the problem of poor lighting was affecting their operations and appealed to the local authority to urgently address the problem.

“We are appealing to the city council to address the issue of poor lighting at night because street lights are all virtually not working,” he said.

“This is now a dark city because most of the street lights are no longer working and this is not good for businesses and for the residents.”

Mr Mazarire said the problem of street lights was impeding business as many shops were closing early in fear of criminals who could take advantage of darkness to pounce on them. He said residents who use footpaths to and from work were at risk of losing their belongings or being harmed by criminals because of poor lighting.

“The majority of our people walk to and from work every day and they use Chimusana and Mudhefudhefu bridges to get to and from Mucheke and this exposes them to criminals and muggers at night because the tower lights are no longer working,” said Mr Mazarire.

“The same applies to residents who walk from Rujeko suburb to and from town, the lighting is very poor at night and council needs to act.’’

Masvingo United Ratepayers and Residents Alliance spokesperson Mr Godfrey Mutimba called on the city council to liaise with Zesa for a permanent solution to the problem of street lights.

“We call upon the city fathers to reach a consensus on who should repair street lights in the city between them and Zesa,” he said.

“Street lights act as a deterrent to criminals. The sooner the problem is addressed the better.”

Masvingo mayor Councillor Hubert Fidze said council was working flat out to rectify the problem of poor street lighting in the city. He said there was an impasse between council and Zesa over who was responsible for installing and maintaining the city’s street lights.