Soldiers ‘siege’ Morton Jaffray
SOLDIERS at Inkomo Barracks in Nyabira, about 34km northwest of Harare last week set up camp at Morton Jaffray water works demanding immediate restoration of normal water supply to the military facility and Harare, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
e unexpected intervention of the military, which resulted in some parts of Nyabira receiving normal supplies, jolted Harare City Council authorities, sources said, to frantically repair a burst pipe which had disrupted regular supplies.
is comes as most parts of Harare have endured prolonged periods without water as Harare City Council is battling to import six treatment chemicals from South Africa and China.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week warned cash-strapped local authorities, including Harare City Council, about importing steeply-priced treatment chemicals.
He gave the warning while commissioning a US$3 million Zimbabwe Phosphate Industries (Zimphos) fertiliser manufacturing plant.
e manufacturing plant has capacity to produce 20 000 tonnes of fertiliser annually and also water purification chemicals. It is widely expected to drastically trim the country’s import bill, in the short term.
Inkomo Barracks, which is home to the Parachute Regiment and 1 Mechanised Battalion gets the bulk of its water from Morton Jaffray.
e same water treatment facility also supplies water to about three million residents of Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Epworth and Norton.
Harare City Council acting Town Clerk Mabhena Moyo confirmed the incident and said the engagement between the encamped soldiers at Morton Jaffray and staff at the water treatment site largely remained informal and nothing was communicated verbally formally nor in writing.
“ey (soldiers) never communicated. ere was no official communication. ey were just talking to the workers (at Morton Jaffray) but nothing official came to us.
“Nothing was communicated to the Council officially. ey did not tell us anything in writing,” Moyo said without explaining whether staff at Morton Jaffray had inquired from the soldiers the purpose of the visit.
However, sources close to the “unexpected” presence of the army at the waterworks told this publication that the soldiers ordered workers at the water site to promptly repair a broken pipe, which reportedly pumps water to Nyabira, where