City of Masvingo (Public Health) By-laws, 2025

These by-laws, made under section 229 of the Urban Councils Act, cover sanitation, nuisance, waste and the keeping of animals in the City of Masvingo.

They require premises to have health and sanitation facilities, prohibit nuisance, overcrowding, the harbouring of pests and rats, the accumulation of organic and non-organic matter, the burning of refuse, mosquito breeding and expectorating in public, and require refuse bin storage and suitable facilities for storing or pre-treating trade waste. Slaughterhouses must hold a council permit at the prescribed fee.

Keeping animals or bees needs a permit. The application fee is US$2, the permit itself US$2 per animal, renewal US$2, and an application to keep animals beyond the permitted maximum US$2 per animal. A pig movement permit costs US$2 to apply for and US$2 to issue, and a bee-keeping permit in an agro-residential area follows the same US$2 scale.

Penalties, payable in local currency at the interbank rate and stated to exclude VAT, are mostly US$20 — nuisance, failing to provide sanitation, urinating or defecating outside a convenience, harbouring pests or rats, accumulating waste, failing to clean premises, burning refuse, breeding mosquitoes, keeping animals without a permit or beyond the permitted number, and failing to tether an animal on a leash of no more than two metres. Heavier fines apply to erecting unsanitary or dangerous structures (US$100), failing to provide trade waste storage or pre-treatment facilities (US$1 000) and depositing improper articles in a public convenience (US$50). Overcrowding costs US$5 per person and spitting in public US$5.

Disease control is specific: failing to notify the council and veterinary services of an infectious animal disease costs US$50, and failing to confine a diseased animal or prevent the spread of disease US$20 each.