THE Zanu PF move directing local authorities to scrap outstanding rates in the run-up to the July 31 polls has backfired with Harare City Council (HCC) disclosing that it has accumulated debts totalling over $200 million in the last three months.
WONAI MASVINGISE
It is understood the residents had accummulated the debts apparently on the assumption that government would announce another debt relief soon.
According to the Town House, residents now owed $40,1 million, the industrial and commercial sector $130 million while government owed $42 million bringing the total of money owed in rates arrears to council to $212 million.
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo ordered all local authorities to cancel debts owed by residents since 2009 as at June 30, 2013, but the move was fiercely opposed by other political parties as a gimmick to buy the urban vote.
Yesterday, HCC treasurer Misheck Mubvumbi disclosed that ratepayers had gone from zero debt in July to an astonishing $200 million as of September 30.
“People had accumulated a lot of debt and they were saying it was difficult to pay off the debts since it had risen so high,” Mubvumbi, who was speaking at the 2014 budget consultative meeting with the business community at Town House, in Harare yesterday, said.
“We wrote off that debt in July and people were now at zero debt. The assumption was that after the write off people would come forward and pay their rates. We have made it clear that if they do not pay we are going to take stringent measures by way of summons going forward. Debts had become manageable because they had been written off and we expect people be paying their rates, but it’s astonishing that so much debt has accrued over the space of a few months.”
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Before debt cancellation HCC was owed $166 million.
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) deputy director Rose Mpofu said the local authority should stop taking a defensive stance, but accept blame and consider issues raised by stakeholders to provide better services.
“You must take issues that we are raising here and make sure you incorporate them in your planning instead of being defensive,” Mpofu said. Other residents said the council should carry out awareness campaigns to ensure that the public was well informed on pertinent issues affecting the well-being of the city.
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) chairman Simbarashe Moyo, who said his organisation was encouraging residents to pay their bills, said: “I think they have to clarify when they say residents. Who exactly are they talking about? Are they referring to Greater Harare because if they are then we are talking of more than six million residents?”
He added: “We have always been urging people to pay for their service from the city council, but l think the debt cancellation set a bad precedent because people have now relaxed because they might believe if they don’t pay they might get another cancellation. However, what I know is that bills are being paid, but they are not being paid in full because people have no money.”
Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba said council officials had no mandate to speak of residents’ debts when they had refused and neglected to attend to the “chaotic billing system and huge salaries that do not match its capacity to generate revenue.”
Shumba said the local authority continued to manipulate the bills it sent to residents.
“The city officials or managers continue to talk about the debt owed by government, industry and commerce, and always try to create an impression that residents are refusing to pay their bills,” he said. “The truth is that the residents of Harare do not like debt at all. But they have been pushed into a corner by a senior management that is looting public resources, operating under a failed turnaround strategy.
“The fact that it is the management that is pushing through the issue of the debt owed by residents, it is clear that their only motivation is remuneration, allowances and other benefits associated with working for the City of Harare.” Although repeated efforts to get a comment from Chombo failed yesterday, he is on recorded saying the move to scrap the rates was in line with Zanu PF’s pro-poor policy championed by President Robert Mugabe.
“In terms of Section 133 of the Rural District Councils Act Chapter 29:13 as read with section 303 of the Urban Councils Act chapter 29:15 of Councils are directed to write off debts in respect of rentals, unit tax, development levy, refuse charges and water and sewer fees as at June 30, 2013. Similarly amounts owed by residents in respect of rates since February 2009 stand prescribed in terms of section 15 of the prescription Act,” Chombo said.
Chombo urged Zesa to embrace the concessionary arrangement put in place in order to protect vulnerable members of the community.
