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Ziscosteel workers outside the plant in Redcliff

Patience Mutsiwi, Midlands Reporter
REDCLIFF Municipality has been forced to slash its annual budget by 50 percent owing to the challenging economic climate.

The municipality has for the past seven years had a budget deficit which has mainly been attributed to the closure of Ziscosteel in 2008 which employed the majority of residents in the satellite town.

At its peak, Ziscosteel was among Africa’s biggest integrated steelworks employing a 5 000 strong workforce, most of whom lived in Redcliff.

Redcliff mayor Councillor Fred Kapuya said the local authority has reduced its budget for next year to $8 million from $16 million this year.

“The budget cut came as a result of the realities on the ground. We have noticed that we were dreaming big in our budget and therefore we have reduced some of the levies that we were charging residents such as the education levy and sewer levy. We are now focusing on things that our residents afford such as road patching and water systems,” said Clr Kapuya.

The Redcliff mayor, whose council has had problems with Kwekwe City Council for failing to settle a $15 million water bill, said the municipality will move to ration water as a debt management strategy.

“Another reality is that we cannot supply water the whole week, thus we have decided to ration our water supply to residents at least three days a week because we do not have the capacity to supply them every day,” he said.

Early this year, the local authority slashed salaries of its managers by 22 percent as part of efforts to streamline operations and ensure that more funds are channelled towards service delivery.

The move was part of the local authority’s efforts to comply with a Government directive of ensuring that 70 percent of the budget goes towards service delivery and 30 percent to salaries.

Redcliff collects an average of $120 000 in revenue monthly against a possible target of $700 000.

The precarious state of its finances has seen council failing to pay workers and has arrears of six months.

@patiemtsiwi