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Bulawayo City Council building

Business Reporter
THE Completion and Tariff Commission will tomorrow hold a public hearing in Bulawayo into the tariff and billing system of the city council after an outcry from ratepayers and residents that the charges were exorbitant. An official from the commission yesterday urged members of the public to come out in their numbers to give evidence to the commission on allegations that the council was abusing its monopoly in the provision of municipal services to impose excessive charges on water, rates and levies.

“Anyone who is interested and affected by BCC is welcome because this is a public hearing,” said the official.
The hearing will be held at the Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel starting at 9am.

On Tuesday, the commission held a similar hearing on the billing system of the Harare City Council.
The official said they were disappointed with the turn out of members of the general public at the Harare hearing as it was mostly civic organisations which turned out.

The official said they wanted to get views from members of the public and the hearing would provide an opportunity for them to air their views on the way they were being billed by the city council.

“In Harare people came but the turnout was not good. It was more of associations than the general public. We want the public to be part and parcel of the hearing. We want to see how the public is affected by tariffs and the billing system.”

Since the start of the multiple currency system, residents have been complaining about service charges levied by utilities.
The commission launched investigations into the Bulawayo City Council last December and asked residents to submit their grievances in terms of section 28 (2) of the Competition Act.

After the submission of the grievances, the commission decided that issues raised by residents warranted a public hearing.
Findings from the hearings in Bulawayo and Harare would be used as a benchmark on the course of action to be applied in all local authorities.

The public hearing in the city is taking place despite remarks by the Mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo, that the exercise as “useless” as rates and services charges were based on figures agreed during the budget consultation process with the residents.

Apart from local authorities, the CTC in 2011 conducted public hearings into the alleged abuse of its monopoly by Zesa.
The power utility was found to be abusing its monopoly and ordered to revise downwards some of its energy tariffs as well as use actual readings when billing consumers.