BULAWAYO City councillors will this week engage council
management with the hope of stopping the wave of water disconnections that the
local authority embarked on since yesterday to recover what is owed to the
council.
On Friday, the city’s town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube
announced that they will be embarking on the water disconnections to recover
over $180 million owed to the local authority.
However, acting mayor, Councillor Tinashe Kambarami
yesterday said they were already engaging the city’s management with the hope
of halting the disconnections, noting there was a need for the local authority
to resort to other means of debt recovery outside the disconnections.
Clr Kambarami revealed that councillors had already advised
management to identify other revenue streams that would see the local authority
not relying on rates and rentals as their main source of revenue.
“This is something that we already spoke about as
councillors during our supplementary budget presentation where we said there was
an urgent need to identify new revenue streams. Actually we identified issues
like parking, prepaid water meters and truck stops to mention just a few. Our
vision is to copy what was done by the city of Cape Town where residents are
paying next to nothing with the municipality there having diversified by
identifying revenue streams outside the rates and rentals,” said the acting
mayor.
He said there was a need for the local authority not to
turn a blind eye to the plight of residents as a majority were unemployed with
the few who were employed getting a meagre salary.
“We are in a situation where already residents are having
constant electricity cuts therefore as councillors we feel that by
disconnecting their water supplies we are worsening their burden, and not going
in tandem with our goal of turning this city into a smart city.
“Further I believe we must consult our ratepayers with the
goal of identifying other means of debt recovery outside water disconnections,
bearing in mind that water is a basic human right and no one can survive
without water,” said Clr Kambarami.
The acting mayor however, implored residents not to relax
by not paying their rates but rather endeavour to pay whatever they could
monthly.
In a statement, Mr Dube said the disconnections commenced
in five of the city’s wards — wards 3, 20, 22, 23 and 24 — yesterday before
spreading to other areas this week.
He further advised residents who may have challenges making
full payments to approach the city council for negotiations on payment plans in
order to avoid water disconnections.
“Residents are encouraged to avoid being inconvenienced by
these necessary recovery measures by availing themselves to the following:
Approach any of council’s revenue offices and enter into a payment arrangement
that will protect you against any of the recovery measures being taken.
Ideally, a payment arrangement acceptable to council involves an initial
payment of 10 percent of the total outstanding debt followed thereafter by
making monthly payments of current bill plus 10 percent (minimum) of the
outstanding debt until it is paid in full,” said the town clerk.
“Honouring the arrangement made will have the effect of
continuously protecting you against any of the recovery measures that council
takes against debtors and also ensures that the account is interest free,” said
the town clerk.
According to the latest council report the local authority
is owed a total of $189 942 350 with residents owing the bulk of the amount at
$110 705 072, industry and commercial debtors owe; $71 900 819, Government
departments; $3 406 531 while parastatals owe; $3 929 928. Sunday News
0 comments:
Post a Comment