Kadoma City in bid to recover $40m arrears

KADOMA City Council has embarked on a door-to-door campaign to recover over $40 million owed by ratepayers to improve revenue inflows.

Council has also introduced a number of other strategies including offering discounts to debtors and incentives for up-to-date ratepayers.

These measures are being complemented by a disconnection blitz which has reportedly seen some residents clearing their arrears.

Presenting the first quarter performance report to Kadoma stakeholders, finance director Mrs Faustina Zhou said council was operating on a shoestring budget, forcing it to implement the debt recovery strategies.

“Our budget performance is at 64 percent, which is way below expectations considering that we already have creditors,” she said.

“We are, therefore, embarking on a door-to-door campaign encouraging people to pay up their bills and thanking those who are up to date.”

Mrs Zhou said the scheme was working well in most areas visited so far.

She, however, expressed concern over council having to fork out money to recover debts which residents should have cleared before they ballooned

“In Chemukute, ratepayers’ response was good, but the challenge is that they started accumulating more debts after we moved to other areas,” she said.

Mrs Zhou said disconnections were the last resort after all other efforts failed to yield any significant results.

“There are also regular disconnections being carried out among those that have gone for long periods without paying.”

She said council was also offering favourable discounts to both debtors and ratepayers whose accounts were up to date.

Meanwhile, the city council has called for a stakeholder participation in resolving perennial water challenges affecting the city with some areas having gone for years without supplies.

Addressing stakeholders in the city at a poorly attended meeting on last Friday, Mrs Zhou said the council’s current financial position did not allow wholesome improvement of the water supply situation.

She said council was aware of the water shortages in some wards in the city.

“Action is urgently needed on our side, but that all depends on the availability of cash. We still have a long way to go. However, we have since noted those areas that are not accessing water and hope to come up with a solution.”

Mrs Zhou said through collective efforts among residents, some of the water challenges could be resolved with minimum cash outlays

She, however, unwittingly exposed shortcomings in the engineering department when she said council was not aware of some of its water lines.

“In Ward 15, the challenges there were only to do with valves that were closed and no cash was needed. As council, we had failed to locate the valves, but through the intervention of locals whom we paid we managed to locate and opened them,” she said.

Mrs Zhou also blamed vandalism of council property for the water challenges.

“In Ward 13, a known personality in the area vandalised a pipe and residents were afraid to name him. Getting co-operation from stakeholders will be key in addressing some of the water challenges,” she said.

The water situation in Kadoma had become so dire that residents were relying on unsafe and unreliable water sources.

The worst affected areas included Eiffel Flats, Mupamombe, Wards 5, 6, 8 and part of Ward 13 in Rimuka and Westview, among others.