While government clean-up campaigns come and go, the day-to-day reality at Harare's busiest commuter transit points has stayed largely the same: piled rubbish, overflowing sewage, and a workforce of drivers, conductors and vendors exposed to it every day they go to work.
A Bulawayo24 report describes a visit to Market Square rank where garbage was scattered across the area while raw sewage gushed from manholes, creating what the outlet called "an unbearable stench and raising the risk of disease outbreaks." A similar scene was observed at the Charge Office bus terminus, where council workers reportedly attempted to clear waste, unsuccessfully, only once they noticed a photographer present. Edmore Tirivanhu Gwengwe, chairman of the Harare Youth Transporters Association, described the conditions at the rank as a "health time bomb" that puts drivers, conductors, vendors and commuters at risk in equal measure. Another transport figure identified in the report, Chidora, said raw sewage flowing at the site posed a daily risk to workers and commuters that needed addressing "with immediate effect."
The report notes some genuine improvement elsewhere in the city, the installation of bins outside CBD shops, but is explicit that uncollected garbage remains a pressing, unresolved problem specifically at public transport hubs, where footfall and waste generation are highest and collection appears least consistent. Efforts by the outlet to reach council spokesperson Stanley Gama for comment on the Market Square and Charge Office conditions were unsuccessful at the time of publication.
Herald Online's reporting on the city's wider waste crisis supplies the structural explanation behind scenes like these. City of Harare director of health Dr Prosper Chonzi told the paper the council's fleet includes only 33 functional refuse trucks, against an estimated requirement of around 120, a shortfall that leaves collection crews unable to keep pace with generation even before accounting for breakdowns or fuel shortages. Chonzi was direct about the consequence: "The council often fails to collect refuse regularly due to a shortage of functional vehicles and equipment. This leads to the accumulation of uncollected garbage in open spaces and illegal dumping, creating a breeding ground for diseases." He described his department as being in constant "reaction mode," fighting preventable outbreaks instead of addressing chronic underinvestment directly, a dynamic residents in high-density suburbs like Highfield echoed to Herald Online, describing rising illness rates they link directly to irregular collection.
Why transport hubs specifically are a pressure point
Bus ranks and transit termini concentrate exactly the conditions that turn uncollected waste into a public health emergency: high foot traffic, food vendors operating in close proximity to rubbish and sewage, and commuters with no alternative but to pass through daily regardless of sanitary conditions. Unlike a residential street where uncollected bins are primarily a nuisance, a transport hub failure exposes thousands of people who have no choice in the matter to raw sewage and rotting waste every single day.
Academic research backs up why residents and transport workers, rather than council, so often end up managing the fallout themselves. A mixed-methods study published in DOAJ evaluating community social capital in Harare's waste management found that erratic refuse collection, driven by a shortage of collection vehicles and fuel for the trucks that do exist, has left waste management responsibilities falling increasingly on communities themselves, who organise informally to manage what the council cannot. That pattern, residents and transport associations stepping in where council capacity fails, is precisely what played out at Market Square, where it took transport workers' own complaints, not a scheduled council visit, to draw attention to the crisis.
Until Harare's truck fleet closes the gap Dr Chonzi has described, publicly announced clean-up operations are likely to keep clearing these sites temporarily without resolving why they fill back up so fast.
Sources
- Harare City fails to cope with piles of garbage, Bulawayo24 News
- Solid waste: A persistent challenge for Harare . . . Geo Pomona partnership brings relief, Herald Online
- Evaluating the efficacy of social capital in facilitating sustainable municipal waste management: Reflections from Harare, Zimbabwe, DOAJ
Written by Rufaro
Plain-language guides to getting rid of anything in Zimbabwe, properly.
