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| Edward Mukaratirwa |
Clayton Shereni
MASVINGO- The under pressure City
of Masvingo last Friday (March 26) convened a special full council meeting
where they reportedly agreed to a 20 percent rates climb down from the 500
percent which caused a massive uproar from residents.
The
local authority, which has been misfiring in service delivery on all fronts,
has attracted a lot of backlash from agitated residents after a 500 percent
rates hike which was effected last month.
Acting
Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa told TellZim News that they had convened
a meeting where some ‘adjustments’ had been made but couldn’t divulge the exact
percentage being offered by the city fathers.
“We
held a special full council meeting on Friday and we are going to engage
residents at ward level, the dates are still being sorted out. Obviously some
adjustments were made but I cannot tell you off head,” said Mukaratirwa.
A
stakeholder meeting which was billed for February 19, 2021, ended prematurely
as residents’ representatives could not accept anything less than a major rates
reduction.
However,
sources within council told TellZim News that the city fathers will soon
approach residents with a 20 percent reduction offer during the soon to be held
ward meetings.
“Yes we
deliberated on the issue of tariffs in the special full council meeting and we
resolved to reduce rates by 20 percent,” said a source.
The
city council has been under immense pressure after the minister of State for
Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira called on the local
authority to engage residents before arbitrarily increasing rates.
Chadzamira
said the rates could be reversed despite the budget having been approved.
Mayor
Collen Maboke could not be drawn to comment as he said he was in Harare on
official council business.
Despite
suspending the city engineer Tawanda Gozo for gross incompetence, the city
still faces the same crippling service delivery problems with water shortages
getting worse and the quality deteriorating to unprecedented levels.
