Councils Free To Garnish Govt Accounts, There Will Be No Debt Cancellations In New Dispensation - Minister Moyo

Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, July Moyo have given local authorities permission to take legal action against government departments in order to recover unpaid debts. The Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (Ucaz) and the Zimbabwe Local Government Association (Zilga) are owed over $1 billion by various government departments. The Minister also said that there will be no debt write-offs and urged people to pay for what they consume. Speaking to the Sunday News, Moyo said,

The Government like every debtor has to be looked at by the council and they know what to do. Both in the Urban Councils Act and Rural District Councils Act, how to make a person pay is elaborated and the councils know it. They can garnish, they can do all kinds of things and if Government was garnished by local authorities because it is their right, I can’t say no as long as it is to recover what councils are owed…“In this new dispensation there has never been a pronouncement of debt cancellations, we are urging our citizens that these are your towns and cities, and any area can only be made good by taxpayers doing what they ought to be doing and we are urging that everybody has to play their part. We as Zimbabweans must have a culture of paying for what we consume, whether we are consuming it physically or we are consuming it because we are owning it.

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