Clayton
Shereni
Masvingo City Council
is reintroducing interest on all unpaid bills starting this month in an effort
to force residents and ratepayers to settle their dues, TellZim can report.
This was said at a 2020
mid-year budget review meeting today, September 02, where the local authority engaged residents,
residents’ associations and the business community.
Responding to concerns
by the business community on council’s failure to implement strict revenue and
debt collection measures, deputy city treasurer Danister Jori said council was
adding interest on all unpaid bills.
“As council, we will
embark on a promotional campaign to encourage our residents to pay their bills.
We are going to charge interest on overdue accounts starting this month.
Probably we will face challenges but we will do so according to the prevailing
market rate,” said Jori.
Council had scrapped
interests on all bills after the coronavirus-induced national lockdown.
Masvingo United
Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (Murra) information officer Godfrey Mtimba
said the move was counterproductive as it will result on more defaulting in the
timely payment of bills.
“This will worsen the situation because
residents are already struggling to pay their debts due to the effects of the
lockdown on their sources of income.
“In this current
situation, we expect them to introduce incentives as a way of encouraging those
who make a sincere effort to clear their arrears,” said Mtimba.
Masvingo Service
Delivery Residents and Ratepayers Association (Masdrra) secretary general Moses
Mavhusa rubbished the plans and called upon council and notify residents first.
“We feel residents were
not notified and this is being rushed. Council should have given people a notification
period of at least two months. We need to sit down and plan on how we could notify
our residents. As Masdrra, we are going to fight this, we will not fold our
hands,” said Mavhusa.
Council is owed a total
of $131.2 million mostly by government departments that include the security
services and the ministries that hardly pay their bills.
