Angelah Nothando Mlotshwa
Finding a clean, functioning public toilet in the Bulawayo Central Business District has of late become a rarity.
This development has seen the public being left with no choice but to part with their hard earned money, utilizing sanitary lanes, using paid for bathrooms and resorting to hotels, bars and cafes.
The City of Bulawayo has several buildings that were initially used as public toilets, some like the facilities at the City Hall and some at PicknPay Hyper have been privatized requiring the public to pay in order to use them.
The public toilets at the Revenue Hall have been out of commission for nearly two decades.
The other public facility is the bathroom complex located along 5th avenue that mainly services the fruit and vegetables markets. ZIM GBC NEWS observed that though it is still open free of charge to the members of the public the facility is in a state of decay with broken toilet seats, dim lighting, graffiti, dirty fixtures, soiled toilet seats, water and urine on the floor.
ZIM GBC NEWS spoke to the Deputy Mayor of the City of Bulawayo Mlandu Ncube who disclosed that the Revenue Hall underground public toilets were decommissioned years ago because of a lot of criminal activities that were now taking place at that facility.
“The problem is, there were a lot of crime cases being reported at that facility with the criminals taking advantage of the way the underground toilets are designed to carry out their evil activities”, Ncube said.
“I don’t believe the CBD area has an inadequate number of toilets. Residents who foul lanes and other places just have the wrong attitude about hygiene and cleanliness”, added Deputy Mayor.
The City of Bulawayo which was once one of the cleanest urban areas in Africa has been battling a growing litter and uncleanliness problem. One of these problems is that of some residents turning the City’s sanitary lanes into open latrines. The BCC stands accused of not policing these unhealthy actions by some of Bulawayo’s residents. The City Council also stands accused of not coming up with alternatives for people needing to relieve themselves, in a way forcing residents to relieve themselves literally anyway.