Residents owe Harare City Council $82.7 billion

Harare (New Ziana)-The Harare City Council is owed $82.7 billion by its domestic and commercial consumers in unpaid rates, mayor Jacob Mafume said on Wednesday.

In his end of year message, Mafume said poor revenue collection was in turn affecting service delivery.

“Our debtors are at ZWL 82.701 billion, and the list is as follows-domestic consumers are the biggest debtors, followed by industry, commerce and Government.

“All debtors must realise that there is a cost attached to doing business in an urban setting and as such must honour their obligations so that we can also provide basic services,” he said.

Mafume said while the local authority had numerous problems which were big and seemingly insurmountable, most of them had easy solutions including revenue generation and optimum collection.

“Service delivery is a by-product of financial performance. To date we have collected ZWL48.781 billion against a potential of ZWL112 321 331 061. The variance is very huge, and it shows that we are not able to efficiently collect what we are billing. Our creditors stand at ZWL 9.092 billion largely driven by electricity costs and water treatment chemicals,” he said.

Mafume expressed optimism that revenue collection would improve in the coming year.

“Our 2023 revenue budget is ZWL171,758 billion. This means we must collect efficiently to be able to fund service delivery operations. Our ERP (emergency response programme) must work and beginning January 2023 we expect the executive to have made strides in ensuring that our billing and receipting is up to scratch. We will employ aggressive debt recovery strategies so that we can channel more resources towards service delivery,” he said.

Residents’ associations have however accused the city fathers of milking council coffers dry awarding themselves hefty salaries and allowances.

New Ziana