GWERU City councillors on Thursday accused council of short-changing ratepayers through estimated bills, saying this was demotivating residents from settling their bills.
Speaking during a full council meeting, ward 6 councillor Lovemore Choto said resistance to pay bills affected council’s revenue.
“The issue of estimated billing demotivates residents from honouring their obligations,” Choto said.
“If residents don’t pay, this consequently affects council’s revenue streams and this obviously impacts on service delivery.”
Ward 2 councillor Faith Chuma concurred, saying some employees were not taking water meter readings and had a tendency of estimating every month.
“Obviously when the actual meter reading does not tally with the estimated bill, this puts off residents in their bid to pay,” she said.
“In addition to that some water meter readers get bribed by defaulters who would have been disconnected and there is a need to crack the whip on such errant workers.”
Finance committee chairperson Hlupheko Marufu (ward 7) urged residents who have queries about their bills to approach council offices.
- Gweru councillors fret over estimated bills
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“If residents have issues with estimated bills, we urge them to take their own recordings or even take pictures of the water meters and come to council offices to resolve the problem,” he said.
Over the years, residents have been demanding itemised bills from council arguing that they (itemised bills) are a true reflection of amounts owed to the local authority.
Some residents have been refusing to settle their bills, arguing that the estimated bills are not what they owe council.
