By Ziyah News Reporter
The month of August 2024 is special as the country host the region for the SADC summit and in keeping with the spirit of hosting visitors, the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife in collaboration with other Ministries and departments has organised a unique version of the national monthly clean up dubbed the ‘Total Clean-Up Day’ tomorrow the 2nd of August 2024.
In a press statement, the Minister of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife Honourable Dr. Sithembiso Nyoni said the it is ideal that the nation host its visitors in a clean environment and rallied all Zimbabweans to play a part.
“As we prepare to host the 44th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit in Harare, it is imperative that we present our nation as a beacon of environmental stewardship and cleanliness. The upcoming summit not only represents an opportunity for regional dialogue and cooperation but also serves as a platform to showcase Zimbabwe’s commitment to sustainable development and environmental conservation. In this context, I implore on all of you to actively participate in this Total Clean-Up Day as a critical step towards achieving these goals,” said Dr Nyoni.
Dr Nyoni hailed the President Mnangagwa championed programme on how it has grown and evolved to be an inclusive one that has participation cascading to to every corner of the nation.
“As a Nation we embraced this programme in 2018 and to further strengthen the programme, it has since evolved to a localised activity to allow for a more community based approach to cleaning the environment.With this initiative (Total Clean Up), our people can contribute directly to improving their local environments while also preparing our capital city Harare to host our visitors. Over and above, l am calling upon all participants to bring a broom and put on appropriate cleaning regalia for the Total Clean-up day activities, she added.
She also commended the city of Harare for being pro-active in preparing the city to host the SADC regional countries.
“As we all know that the City of Harare will host the 44th SADC Summit, it is therefore imperative that we diligently make sure our city is clean to welcome our delegates. On that note l am glad to let you know that the city will be cleaned in zones to ensure maximum participation leaving no area uncleaned. The Harare CBD has been clustered into 10 quadrants which therefore allows each one of us to go into any quadrant for the cleaning on the Total clean-up day.”
Private companies within each identified quadrant have also been called upon to release staff to participate in the Total Clean – up. The Environmental Management Agency will also deploy litter monitors to ensure that all private companies in the CBD clean up their environs.
, The total clean up day is being held under the theme, “Every day Is A Clean-Up Day”.