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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council is struggling to clear a debt of more than $222 million it owes its creditors.

The local authority’s three major creditors are the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC) and the Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF).

Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said as at May 31, the local authority owed more than $210 million to Zimra, ZETDC and LAPF.

“Council has a total creditor figure of over $222 million. Zimra, ZETDC and LAPF are owed over $210 million. Residents might be interested to know that on May 17, 2021, ZETDC switched us off at our water treatment plants over a debt of $143 249 129 and only restored supplies after we committed ourselves to a monthly payment plan of $13 million,” he said.

Clr Makombe said a month later, Zimra garnished the council’s accounts over a $44 million debt.

“Council was forced to pay Zimra $14 253 097,86 for the tax collector to lift the garnish. We still owe them and it is unfortunate that residents are not assisting by clearing their bills,” he said.

Clr Makombe said while the local authority has seen revenue collection increasing in the first half of the year, monthly collections remained low with a total of more than $464 million collected during the period.

“At current revenue collection levels, council is struggling to pay the monthly bill for electricity of $13 million, yet this is the same electricity we need to pump water to the residents. I once more appeal to the residents and other stakeholders to pay their bills if we are to continue supplying water,” he said.

Clr Makombe said overall, the 2021 budget was under-performing owing to reluctance by ratepayers to settle their bills.

“Lack of appetite by residents and other stakeholders to pay their bills means that the budget is under-performing. We have been billing on average $143 million per month since January 2021 and this translates to a cumulative figure of $858 million for the six months to June 2021.

“If we were to use collections over billing as a measure of budget performance, it would be 54,08 percent as our collections for the same period was $464 million,” he said.

Clr Makombe said the situation meant that the city council has already lost 45,2 percent revenue amounting to $394million.

Two months ago, the local authority embarked on a number of debt recovery measures including litigation against defaulting ratepayers, which saw some residents having their property attached by the Messenger of Court.

Council suspended the litigation process after an outcry by residents’ associations before defaulters were given time to clear their bills.

Clr Makombe said litigation seems to be the only way to force the residents to settle their bills.

“We are also going to intensify collection measures, we once embarked on litigation and gave our people a reprieve to settle their bills and that time has lapsed and if they continue defaulting, anytime soon we will consider litigation,” he said.

GCC spokesperson Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee on Tuesday said residents’ debt had ballooned to more than $759 million as at the end of May.

“We are greatly concerned with the debtor’s book figure. As at 30 November 2020 it was $296 300 766 and now $759 657 662 as of May 31 and that is an increase of $463 356 896 in six months and that negatively affects service delivery,” she said.

The local authority also suspended the levying of interest on arrears with effect from June 2021 billing to encourage residents to clear their debt.

The council was from February 2021 charging interest on debtors at a rate of 1,58 percent per month as a punitive measure to defaulters.