KWEKWE City Council has proposed introducing a lights levy for each household monthly to help it maintain its street lighting system.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The proposed levy is contained in the local authority’s yet-to-be-approved 2017 budget.
Council’s finance committee chairperson, Janet Ticharunga said the levy would be 90 cents for high density suburbs, $1 for low density suburbs, while industry would pay $2.
With a population of 30 000 households, the city hopes to raise $700 000, which will be used for street lighting.
“We looked at what other local authorities are doing and came up with this new levy so that we can ensure that our streets have lights once more, so these are the proposals that we are putting forward,” she said.
Mayor Matenda Madzoke, however, said the levy would be discontinued once council had raised the required $700 000.
“The idea is to discontinue the levy once we have raised the required capital, we need to have new tower lights, have solar-powered lights in the central business district so that we reduce crime and improve the outlook of our city,” he said.
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Madzoke said it could take just three months to raise the $700 000, despite the budget proposal extending the collections for a year.
But residents proposed that the levy be reduced to 50 cents per household in the high-density suburbs.
Taurai Mutero of Mbizo also called on council to improve transparency in the management of the new levy after numerous council audits have revealed abuse of public funds.
“We want to know if the money won’t be used to purchase management’s vehicles or to pay salaries, because, at this point, we don’t trust our council,” he said.
The proposed levy comes as residents are battling to meet their utility bills, with council only collecting a paltry $7 million out of the expected $17 million this year.
