Decide Nhendo
Masvingo residents have called for the city council to find and maximize other sources of revenue to lessen the burden of financing council activities to on residents.
Speaking during budget consultation meeting at Mucheke Hall recently, residents said the rates were increasing every day and council was supposed to find more ways of raising money including proper leasing of council beer halls and Mucheke Rank among other sources.
A resident from Twizza Hostel said the person renting Farai Beer hall is also subletting some compartments for other uses instead of using the beer hall for its intended use.
“Council is failing to run its bars and is renting them out, however, we feel they are not doing it properly and is not getting meaningful revenue from there, this means council will turn to us on everything they need financially.
Council should lease bars to people with capacity who will transform them into cash cows not what we are seeing right now.
“Farai Beer Hall used to be one of the best beer outlets in Masvingo but now the standards have deteriorated and I am sure council is no longer making money from it this is now affecting us residents greatly as the rates and taxes like refuse collection are increasing while revenue from council bars can be used to cover other costs,” said Gigantic Fudzani.
Another resident said council should make sure they maintain Mucheke Rank properly as it is another cash cow that can raise more money for council and lessen pressure on residents.
“The council have to make use of opportunities like the rank which can be used to generate money to use in other projects if kept up to standard as they will be able to collect money from vehicles that will be operating within the rank to fund other social services programmes,” said the resident
Masvingo City Council is proposing a USD$17 million budget where USD$15 will come from internals sources and the remainder from other sources.
The local authority is proposing to introduce another levy on residents called fire levy where residents are expected to pay US$ 1.50 for residential stands are and US$3 for commercial stands.
Council said the need was necessitated by the fact that it covers the whole province and due to the nature of the operations residents will have to pay a levy towards that cause beginning of January 2024.
