Chitungwiza hammers dollar-a-day deal

CHITUNGWIZA Municipality, that is owed millions of dollars by residents and businesses, has hammered a deal with some residents who have agreed to pay a dollar per day towards offsetting their monthly bills.

This comes after The Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest) held a consultative meeting with Chitungwiza Municipality on revenue collection and the billing system improvement.

The meeting was attended by the council management, including town clerk Dr George Makunde, mayor Phillip Mutoti, District Administrator for Chitungwiza Mrs Zivai Chisango and all council committee chairpersons.

The Chitungwiza Residents Association said following deliberations, the parties agreed that residents try by all means to pay their dues to council and that council stops charging for services not rendered.

“It was agreed that willing residents pay a dollar per day to council towards their monthly bills as a way of cushioning them against the liquidity crunch and the debilitating effects of the economy,” said Chitrest, in a statement.

“That the local authority shall rectify bills for those properties that were being charged services that are not being rendered by the municipality. All those property owners affected by this anomaly are encouraged to approach council for rectification.”

The participants agreed that the municipality shall hold stakeholders’ consultative and citizen participation meetings at every three months interval. Mr Makunde said they will consult further to ensure that most of the residents agreed to the proposals. Chitrest has in the past mobilised residents against payment of rates in protest over poor road maintenance, erratic water supplies, uncollected garbage and dysfunctional sewer reticulation infrastructure.

Last year, the cash-strapped council paid $250 000 as retrenchment packages to over 200 workers who were staging a sit-in at its offices. The workers were paid $1 000 each after being sacked in 2015 based on the July 17, 2015 Supreme Court ruling, which allowed employers to terminate workers’ contracts on three months’ notice.

The workers were demanding $2,1 million in unpaid salaries for 24 months and picketed at the council offices almost on a daily basis.