Kwekwe proposes $26,9m budget

KWEKWE City Council has proposed a $26,9 million budget for 2019, up from this year’s $26,3 million.

Tempers flared during a full council meeting last week as the city fathers exchanged harsh words while debating proposed tariff increases.

The city fathers later agreed to slightly up the budget to improve revenue for the cash-strapped local authority.

Under the new budget, Kwekwe City Council is proposing to increase water and sewer charges by over 100 percent.

According to the proposed new tariffs, both residents and industry will have to fork out more to finance the crippled local authority.

Under the new proposed tariffs, residents are expected to pay between $15 and $19 as fixed charges.

At the moment, residents in high density suburbs such as Mbizo and Amaveni have been parting with at least $9 as fixed charge per month before incurring other cumulative water and sewer charges.

According to the new tariff schedule, Kwekwe City Council is also proposing to increase refuse collection charges from the current $2 to $3 for those in the high density suburbs, while those in low density suburbs are expected to part with at least $5, up from the initial $2.

The local authority is also proposing over 400 percent increase for the same charges to industries from the current $10 for weekly collections to $45 and $60 for daily collections.

Deputy mayor Alderman Shadreck Tobaiwa said they were waiting for the administration to compile a solid budget proposal.

He said the full council, however, resolved to slightly reduce some of the increased tariff proposals which the city fathers felt were too high.

“During the full council meeting, there were some areas that we agreed to review downwards the proposed tariff increase.

“In principle, it (budget) will be slightly higher than last year’s, but as the city fathers, we made sure that the budget will be within the reach of many” he said.