THE Harare City Council has dispatched 60 000 warrants of attachment to defaulters, as part of a blitz to recover over $400 million owed in unpaid rates and water bills.
BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA
Council spokesperson Michael Chideme told NewsDay that the local authority had also sent out 200 000 summons to various debtors, including residents and commercial entities.
“Once people are issued with summons some are coming to pay, while others are coming to negotiate for payment plans,” Chideme said.
“We are now owed $400 million, but some have responded positively after receiving summons and have approached us to negotiate. It is only those that ignore the correspondence for over 14 days of notice of attachment.”
He said people should now take advantage of their wide area network, which allows them to stay up to date with information regarding their accounts from anywhere in Harare.
He said the system allowed residents to pay their bills from any council office in the city.
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Residents associations have lamented the poor service delivery and rapped council’s move to attach debtors’ properties.
“These are people who deal with blame shifting. We urge our members to come to us so that we can give them lawyers if they receive those letters. We know they are willing to pay, but they are being frustrated by council which is demanding lots of money,” Combined Harare Residents Trust chairperson Simbarashe Moyo said.
He said some of their members have gone to council with different amounts wanting to make payment plans, but they were turned back as the authorities demanded the full payments.
Harare Residents’ Trust director Precious Shumba said council was reactive and lacked the personnel with capacity to understand what the citizens wanted.
