The Harare City Council says it is owed ZiG940 million by residents, businesses, parastatals and government departments, among others, in unpaid rates.
In a statement, the City Council said the unpaid bills have negatively impacted its ability to provide key services to residents.
The Council also said it has since commenced issuing final demands and summons to debtors, and this will be done “without fear or favour.” Reads the statement:
The City of Harare is owed in excess of ZiG940 million by residents, businesses, parastatals and government departments among others. This is money that is needed to run the City operations and service delivery operations.
We have since started issuing final demands and summons to our debtors. The summons will be served on all our debtors without fear or favour.
The City will also embark on a name-and-shame exercise to encourage debtors to settle if they fail to honour their payments.
Names of debtors will be posted on our social media platforms and at all district offices in Harare. To avoid the inconveniences of being taken to court with the possibility of losing property like houses, debtors are urged to immediately settle with the City.
In response to the City of Harare’s statement posted on social media, residents criticized the council for demanding payment for services it has not provided.
Wezhira Wezhinji wrote:
As long as you are billing residents for services that are not provided this problem won’t go away, I will give an example in my case, at one point we went close to 5 months without a drop of water but the bill kept coming with estimates.
Captain Barbossa retorted:
What service are you providing?
GeeCee wrote:
Could you kindly list exactly what the funds are supposed to be used for? And a basic breakdown of how much has been collected in the past 3 months and how it has been allocated. People are more likely to pay when they know where their money is being channelled.
Finch had to say:
Your cashiers turn away people saying the system is down. And one time they started questioning me kuti card ramukushandisa nderenyu here, dzokerai munotora maUS kumba. Very lazy people.
Kaseke said:
That’s laxity on the part of the council and will not sympathize as you are supposed to jerk up in terms of collections but be that as it may how come you not giving updates on some of our bills which were messed up in Feb 2024 and no word on corrections up to now pse sort out the issue.
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