BY OBERT SIAMILANDU VUNGU Rural District Council (VRDC) has said revenue collection for the first three months of this year was very low with the local authority only managing to collect 10% of total billing.
VRDC chief executive officer Alex Magura said the local authority was also failing to bill a number of ratepayers due to various challenges including lack of transport.
“Our revenue collection for the first quarter of the year is on the negative side,” Magura told Southern Eye.
“As council, we are facing transport problems such that we could not distribute bill statements to every corner of our district, and this has been very worrying.
“We are also encouraging residents and ratepayers to honour their bills so that our services as council improve.”
Magura could not provide exact statistics on how much the council was owed as of July.
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Reports indicate that ratepayers owe the council several millions in Zimbabwe dollars.
Meanwhile, Magura said the council had completed the rehabilitation of its sewer and water reticulation infrastructure to improve access to clean water.
Villagers were forced to rely on boreholes and other unsafe water sources.
In an unrelated development, Kwekwe City Council says it plans to power its water treatment plant with solar energy to cut its ballooning debt to Zesa Holdings.
This was revealed by town clerk Lucia Mkandla while addressing residents recently.
In Bulawayo, the local authority was forced to turn to diesel-powered generators in 2010 to power its major business units, the Tower Block and Revenue Hall, to reduce the electricity bill.