The Bulawayo City Council is owed ZWG 430,682,618 (US$31,254,181) in unpaid rates as it struggles to provide quality services.
This is contained in the city’s 2024 budget review document.
The bulk of the debt is from residents, who owe the local authority ZWG 309,023,169 (US$22,425,484). The government owes ZWG 35,039,998, while industrial and commercial entities owe ZWG 121,659,449.
Responding to the performance of the budget for the first six months of the year at Mpopoma Hall on Friday, Ward 9 residents implored the city council to deploy designated meter readers at their local revenue office who will be in charge of ensuring that readings are collected from all households in their area to avoid estimates.
Estimated rates, which are often astronomical, often dissuade residents from settling their bills. “Is it not possible for the city council to deploy at least two or so people and have them stationed at the housing office? Their sole responsibility would be to collect meter readings for all the houses during the month and then send them to the main office in town. That way, we can have correct bills,” one resident suggested.
Another resident queried the authenticity of the outstanding bills presented by the council, citing that the issue of estimates creates ambiguity. “As residents, we want to know for certain if these bills are correct. The challenge is that many estimates are done by the council owing to lack of manpower and adequate resources to conduct door-to-door meter readings. Such scenarios discourage ratepayers from paying,” the resident said.
“We also want to know, despite the money coming through rates and other platforms such as parking fees, what other revenue streams does the council have? These are the things that you need to break down for us so that we understand.”
The resident further suggested that for the council to deliver services adequately, they must conduct their census to fully appreciate the population of the city and allocate the right amount of resources.
Responding to the residents’ concerns, Ndumiso Nkiwane from the city finance services department explained how the local authority is addressing these challenges. “We are currently working on getting trackers on the phones and gadgets used for meter reading. These will enable us to track which areas they went to and hold them to account for not reaching other parts,” Nkiwane explained.
“As for the bills, we need to understand that when there are no readings, we use a systematic way of coming up with estimates. We calculate using the consumption for the previous three months and use the average to come up with an estimate. We believe that this estimation system gives us an almost correct reading.”
