A CITY CHOKING ON ABANDONED VEHICLES

Source: A CITY CHOKING ON ABANDONED VEHICLES | The Sunday Mail

A CITY CHOKING ON ABANDONED VEHICLESScrapyards have become a permanent feature along Willowvale Road in Highfield, Harare. — Pictures: Edward Zvemisha

Veronica Gwaze

A DRIVE through Harare reveals a capital city that has been slowly transformed into a museum of broken-down vehicles.

Scores of different vehicle makes, worn out and weathered by the relentless march of time, stand as silent sentinels, their once-proud frames now surrendered to decay.

The streets are littered with the skeletal remains of stripped cars.

In the past, these decrepit vehicles were primarily confined to residential areas. However, in recent times, even the heart of the city, the central business district, has become a resting place for these abandoned cars.

For example, in Harare’s downtown area, an illegal makeshift garage has emerged and is now encroaching on the Seke Road flyover.

This unsightly collection of rusting hulks serves as shelter for vagrants, who have claimed these remnants as both storage space and a precarious refuge from the elements.

As one navigates the city’s arteries, such as Willowvale Road, the roadsides resemble desolate dumpsites, marked by makeshift garages that house a motley assortment of these vehicles and car shells.

This grim display is a plain reminder of the city’s changing fortunes and the challenges it faces in maintaining its urban fabric.

The proliferation of these unsightly vehicle relics has become a pervasive issue, casting a shadow over the city’s landscape.

A section along Seke Road, particularly the Caledon area, has morphed into a vehicle graveyard, where owners of illegal garages dismantle accident-damaged and non-functional vehicles, leaving behind a trail of stripped cars.

These remnants, often bearing defaced registration numbers or none at all, are then stored in these junkyards.

Residential areas, from high-density suburbs to affluent neighbourhoods, have not been spared from this blight.

Parking lots, once intended for the convenience of shoppers and residents, have also been overrun.

For instance, the Warren Park 1 shopping area now accommodates over 15 derelict vehicles. At the same time, the Glen View 1 shopping area has become home to a similar collection of broken-down cars.

The sheer scale of this problem is staggering, with virtually every suburb in the capital city affected to varying degrees.

As the number of abandoned vehicles continues to rise, the situation poses significant challenges to public health, safety and aesthetics.

Culprits

In some instances, owners of these abandoned vehicles might have failed to fix them due to financial challenges or other factors.

“Some of the cars are deliberately dumped by their owners,” revealed Chitungwiza resident Silence Ngwerume.

“The faults may be too expensive to fix, forcing one to give up on their vehicle or have it stripped to recover some of their funds through selling car parts.”

In some cases, mechanics who have declared themselves owners of these spaces are the troublemakers.

Mechanic Tapiwa Mangwiro has been running an unlicensed garage at the Budiriro 4 shopping area since 2022.

To mark his territory, he used three old vehicles that he got from the community.

Now, he has more than eight such cars at his garage. Two of them are shells.

“Two of the cars were brought here after a series of breakdowns. The owners wanted to have them fixed, but their problems were too costly, so they gave up,” he said.

“I am aware that I need a licence to operate a garage, and I am in the process of acquiring one, but for now, it is a cat-and-mouse game with the local authority.”

Whenever the local authorities pounce on him, Mangwiro has to part with unreceipted amounts ranging between US$5 and US$10.

Danger

While most of the abandoned vehicles and shells are on road servitudes and in illegal garages and car parks, others are in residential areas.

Unfortunately, most of the abandoned vehicles have become play areas for children in the communities.

Medical practitioner Alicia Sibangani notes, with most of the vehicles now filled with dust, waste and empty bottles/glasses, they pose safety hazards.

“Bugs, rats, cockroaches, among other things, infest abandoned cars, creating, at worst, a potential public health hazard or pest nuisance,” she said.

“These can have dire effects on children and adults alike.”

Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba opines that, apart from taking up space unnecessarily, abandoned cars are also crime hotspots.

Disused cars, he said, are frequently used as meeting places to engage in drug deals, as well as the dropping off and picking up of other illegal stuff.

Prostitutes also use them as love nests.

“Abandoned vehicles are also places where prostitution and other unholy acts are being practised,” he said.

“The junk cars also attract nefarious characters and vagrants into otherwise safe neighbourhoods, commercial and industrial areas. The local authorities need to take action to address this continuously growing menace.”

Environmental hazards

Generally, vehicles are also storehouses of hazardous and potentially harmful liquids and chemicals.

Without proper removal of fuel, lubricants and washer fluids, among other liquids, the immediate environment around the disused vehicle is at risk of contamination.

Environmental Management Agency (EMA) education and publicity manager Amkela Sidange notes, with some communities now relying on well or borehole water, this could be a potential health disaster.

She said abandoned cars release harmful toxins and chemicals into the air and soil, which can cause various problems for humans and animals.

“If any of these liquids reach a water supply, it could also result in human sickness, land degradation, destruction of the environment and animals,” she said.

“We are concerned with what is happening, but we do not have the powers to enforce the removal of the disused vehicles, so we engage the local authorities and task them.”

Intervention

As the number of “vehicle graveyards” continues to rise, the city fathers are in a fix.

Head of corporate communications for the City of Harare Stanley Gama said the local authority plans to seize and auction all the abandoned vehicles.

Currently, they are identifying open spaces at their facilities where the decrepit cars can be kept for auctioning.

However, seemingly short of space, they are considering roping in scrap metal dealers to handle the vehicles.

“We are in the process of finalising what exactly to do with these vehicles and shells. In our initial discussions, we proposed removing the vehicles for auction or giving a tender to scrap metal dealers,” he said.

Most nations have invested in baling presses, also known as vehicle crushers, to get rid of disused cars.

While it could be the noble way to go, Gama said, currently, their finances do not permit such an investment.

He added that the authorities are ready to read the riot act and tame the menace.

“Our by-laws prohibit abandoning vehicles in car parks and any other undesignated sites,” Gama said.

“Where we can trace the owners, we will engage them through issuing prohibition and enforcement orders using the Regional Town and Country Planning Act. They will have to remove their vehicles with immediate effect, or else we will auction them.”

Opportunities

However, there are some who see opportunities in abandoned vehicles.

Glen Norah-based vintage car dealer George Madziya specialises in bringing such cars back to life.

“I love what I do and whenever I see an old vehicle, I dream big. I have worked on more than 20 projects, bringing back to life mostly old models or vintage cars. In some projects, we replace the old and worn-out parts, while in others we have to be creative since finding spares for old model vehicles may be a challenge,” he said.

Madziya prefers working on Mazda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover models.

“Refurbishing old vehicles fetches me more on the market as compared to importing and reselling one. Sometimes I even develop an emotional attachment to these projects, and that motivates me a lot.”

COMMENTS

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  • comment-avatar
    Nyoni 2 months ago

    This reporter should know better. It is the responsibility of the enforcement agency notably the VID and traffic police to issue infringement notices to anyone who dumps their vehicles . If the owner is not known the authorities then remove it . There was a time this happened so what has changed now??? I truly rest my case now.