Own Correspondent|President Emmerson Mnangagwa has all but declared three extra non productive days in a year into the ailing but labour intensive Zimbabwean economy.
Mnangagwa declared the first Friday of each calendar month, the National Environment Cleaning Day in which in the first two hours of the working day every Zimbabwean will be forced to down their tools and undertake a nationwide clean up exercise.
Mnangagwa made the declaration as he officially launched the national clean-up campaign in Harare and signed a declaration to this endeavour.
The national environmental cleaning across the country will be carried out between 8am and 10am. In numbers, the exercise takes twenty four hours of productive time in a year which relates to three days of work as the country’s labour laws give a maximum eight hour working day.
Themed “Zero tolerance to litter: my environment, my pride”, the national clean-up campaign launch was attended by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, Defence and War Veterans Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and several Cabinet ministers.
It remains a mystery how Zimbabwean businesses will respond to the call as they have generally always ignored most of the numerous national holidays and government programmes and continued with their businesses as usual.
Launching the campaign, President Mnangagwa stressed the importance of unity and harmony to keep the environment clean.
He said Government had set aside December 5 of every year to plant trees countrywide and to remind each other the importance of keeping the environment clean.
“Let us be united. Let us love peace. Let us love harmony. Let us work together. Let us clean our nation, clean our environment together. Let us be together in broad daylight, at night, during challenges and let us be together. Gore renzara takabatana, gore remaguta takabatana, gore resarudzo takabatana,” said President Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa noted that urban centres in Zimbabwe generated about 165 million tonnes of waste per year, the bulk of which ended up in open illegal dump site, urban streams and wetlands.
He said this had often resulted in blocked drainage system, contaminated surfaces and underground water.
“The Government is committed to uphold and further environmental rights through enactment and passing of laws which enforces responsible waste management behaviour at individual, household and company level,” said Mnangagwa.
“It is mandatory in terms of the Environmental Management Act that every local authority develops a Local Environmental Action Plan (LEAP). In this respect, it is commendable that some local authorities have embraced the LEAP’s programme and managed to construct properly lined and well-engineered land fill sites. It is my Government’s expectation that all other municipalities will follow suit.”
President Mnangagwa said plastic materials were the biggest pollutants and urged wholesalers and retailers not to use plastic materials for packaging.
Earlier in the morning, President Mnangagwa planted a Mushumha tree at State House which is the national tree of the year.