Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Town Clerk Christopher Dube said the local authority will take drastic action that could see ratepayers losing their homes over unpaid bills.
BCC is owed over $1.1 billion by residents, businesses and Government departments in the city and its ballooning debt has left it technically insolvent as its debtors almost equal its creditors.
As of March 2021, the local authority was owed $1.13 billion while it owed $1.06 billion.
Dube told a media briefing on Tuesday that water disconnection was not an effective debt recovery strategy and Council will be forced to take radical measures to force ratepayers to clear their debts. He said:
We are not going to be using one strategy (water disconnections), we are going to use so many of these strategies.
First, we will disconnect you, if it doesn’t work, we will take you to court and, in the end, you will end up losing your property.
We try to conscientise our residents through various forms of media and also through our councillors.
We also try to make sure that the money that has accumulated through a 10 per cent retention scheme is also used in various wards so that people can understand that payments is good for everyone maybe that will also encourage the residents.
The serious one would be taking you to court and take away properties, unfortunately.
The Council is under fire from residents due to failure to attend to burst sewers on time, dilapidated road networks, failure to consistently provide water and collection of refuse.
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Bulawayo residents are obviously not happy with BCC’s delivery of services. There is chaos in the streets are Bulawayo. Road markings are a thing of the past, street lights don’t light up. Roads in residential areas have not been tarred for decades and street lights have not come on for ages and yet BCC officials pay themselves hefty salaries in foreign currency. That is abuse of public funds. Until BCC start improving services, I’m afraid people are also going to hold back their funds. Seizing people’s homes is cruel. One must not forget that more than 90% of the country’s population is unemployed. Where does BCC expect them to get money from. It’s by time them and government must take fully responsibility of the people’s suffering.
Auto correct has distorted my text but I’m sure my message can be understood. Seizing homes is going to render families homeless. Government has a ministry of social services. It’s by time that ministry is seen to be helping struggling families. They have been receiving an allocation of funds but they never help people.
How does BCC propose to take over EVERY single house owned by the biggest defaulters- the govt.??????