John Ndlovu
Visiting the big City of Kings and Queens which is populalry known as koNtuthu Ziyathunqa due to it’s perennial smoke from industrial sites and from the Electricity Power Station which reached the skies was a blessing then as the City became one of the best cities across the world.
Fast-forward to nowadays, the city life of Bulawayo has slowly dilapidated as it has been characterised by constant power outages because of low generation of electricity countrywide and sporadic water rationing owing to subdued rains.
Zim GBC News engaged several Bulawayo residents who echoed their complaints on the current status of living conditions in the City.
Gugulethu Dube a resident from Nkulumane surbubs complained about the current prevailing conditions marked by long hours of power outages and more days of dry taps which leaves residents languishing in the darkness and going for long queues for water at boreholes.
“The town life has seriously depleted nowadays the best solution is to stay in rural areas as living conditions in towns and in rural areas are now at par because here we stay for more than twelve hours without electricity whilst the City Council is also constantly rationing water.”Dube said
Petronella Gongwe from Paddonhurst suburbs also stated that the current power outage conditions in the city are breeding criminals in the area as robbers are pouncing on hapless residents during the wee hours on their way from work.
“The long hours of power outages is now becoming life-threatening as it is breeding criminals who pounce on residents who would be returning from work robbing them of their priceless possessions, taking advantage of the prevalent dark. So we are pleading to responsible authorities to please take heed of our calls by reducing the power cut. To make matters worse, unscheduled power outages are also a big threat to our appliances which we fear that they might be destroyed due to constant power cuts.”Gongwe told this reporter