Gwanda Mayor Alderman Thulani Moyo has urged residents to settle outstanding council bills to help the local authority stock up on essential supplies and maintain services during the festive season.
Moyo said council needed to raise enough money before December, when many suppliers close for the holidays, to purchase fuel and water treatment chemicals needed to sustain operations into January and February.
He warned that failure to secure adequate supplies could disrupt service delivery, particularly if suppliers ran out of stock or delayed reopening after the holidays.
“We are requesting that we work together and ensure that we pay our rates on time. We are aware that most companies close for a lengthy period in December, so if we fail to raise enough money to stock up on the essentials we need, we may have challenges with service delivery,” he said.
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“We need to have enough money to buy fuel for vehicles that we use in service delivery. We also need to buy chemicals that will push us up to January and early February.”
Moyo said some suppliers ran out of essential products during the festive season, forcing council to source them from distant areas at additional cost.
He also stressed the need to pay municipal workers on time, saying the local authority had a legal obligation to meet its salary commitments despite service delivery challenges.
“We also need to pay our workers on time. Of course, there are some hiccups with service delivery, but people are employed and we are bound by labour laws to ensure that they get paid,” he said.
Moyo said residents should recognise that monthly council bills covered several services beyond water consumption, warning that continued non-payment could force the local authority to disconnect water supplies on a large scale.
He acknowledged that such action would affect residents during the hot summer months but said council could be left with few alternatives if debts continued to accumulate.
“People are owing a lot of money and for us to retrieve that money we may be forced to do massive disconnections of water. But we realise that it is too hot and if we do that, a lot of people will be affected,” he said.
“We do not want to resort to such harsh options but we may have no other option.”
He urged residents to encourage neighbours, friends and relatives to settle their bills, adding that some debtors were deliberately avoiding council officials seeking payment.
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