RESIDENTS THREATEN TO STOP PAYING RATES
HARARE residents have threatened to stop paying Council rates due to shortages of water and poor service delivery.
Calls to boycott paying have grown louder as ratepayers are frustrated that the City of Harare is not making any effort to deal with its challenges.
One Haig Park resident, only identified as Mai Robbie, said the Council should earn the trust of the residents.
“We have always argued that the City of Harare needs to earn the trust of ratepayers by fixing the challenges derailing service delivery so that more residents begin to pay rates,” she said.
“Presently, a small percentage of residents are paying their dues monthly even though they are not getting all the services they need, particularly water and refuse collection.
“Residents have been pumping out more money, in addition to paying their rates, to hire private refuse collectors and buy water from bulk water suppliers.
“Feeling the financial burden of the ever increasing rates, while at the same time paying private service providers, the residents are now taking steps to protect themselves from being continually fleeced of their hard-earned money.
“The residents are fed up, and they were bound to, given that prices of everything else (food, services, fuel and electricity) are going up.”
Ward 9 councillor, Prince Mutebuka, said the City of Harare is pushing for decentralisation of services to address service delivery challenges at ward level.
“Rates are being paid but as you have heard, it’s just 46 percent.
“And of that 46 percent, the erosion in the value of the money paid is just too much.
“If you say today that the rate is 1:16 000 and after two weeks it’s 18 000, it means the items that you were supposed to get today you cannot get at that amount.
“So if you look at the amount of bills that you are paying, especially if it is in local currency, it will not do a thing when we are talking about refuse trucks.
“When we are talking about the water distribution system, it’s something that is capital intensive and we as council have pushed time and again to make sure that we get revenue in US dollars.”
Efforts to get a comment from council spokesperson, Stanley Gama, were fruitless.