Perpetua Murungweni
The Nemanwa business community has
today (April 7) petitioned the Masvingo Rural District Council (RDC) over
prohibitive tariffs which shot from US$24 to US$100 per term among a host of
other service delivery concerns.
The petition was delivered to the
council engineer one Chenjerai on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Martin Mubviro who was said to be out of the office.
The Nemamwa business community
secretary Rtd police Superintendent Philip Ncube said they peacefully and
successfully served the petition to council and they were now awaiting a
response.
“The Nemanwa Business Forum management
committee successfully and peacefully served a petition to Masvingo RDC following a resolution made at a meeting on April 3, 2021.
“Nemanwa Business Community made resolutions
as outlined on the petition. Amongst the resolutions to the Masvingo RDC, the
business community demanded reduction in all licenses.
“General licences increased from US$24
use to US$100usd and as business owners we cannot afford to pay these fees and
the council must revise their license fees”, said Ncube.
The business community accused Masvingo
RDC of being a corrupt council whereby staff including council security collect
forex from business people and swipe or pay EcoCash pocketing the hard
currency.
“The business community is demanding
that there should be a full investigation of all payments by swipe against licenses
to identify owners of the bank accounts.
“We call on the council to seek dialogue
with shop operators and not to close if they fail to pay for their shop
licenses.
“We are also calling on the local
authority to remove all vendors from undesignated sites and the council must
finish constructing the vending stalls,” said Ncube.
Masvingo RDC CEO Mubviro said he was
yet to receive the petition but would be briefed once he gets back into office.
“If a petition was served then I would
be briefed about it. I am not in the office at the moment.
“Our council is open for dialogue and
if business people want to come to the table then we will be ready to listen,”
said Mubviro.
