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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
“WE cannot start crafting the 2022 budget before the 2021 supplementary budget is approved!”

This is a bold statement made by a majority of Victoria Falls residents to council management, saying the 2022 budget consultation process should be halted until the supplementary budget submitted to Government a few months ago is approved.

The local authority last year proposed a nearly $1,3 billion budget for 2021 drawing the ire of residents who said their views were not captured, hence the consultation process was flawed.

Residents said they were shocked in January this year when many received water bills ranging between $3 000 and $9 000 per month, which they said most of them could not afford as Victoria Falls was hard hit by Covid-19.

The residents successfully lobbied for another round of consultation which resulted in a supplementary budget where the council agreed in July to reduce the 2021 budget by 50 percent.

This excluded water and refuse charges which remained unchanged as management said the costs of running the two services were exorbitantly high.

The supplementary budget is yet to get approval from Government after council sent it to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works in July.

The council rolled out consultation meetings in 11 wards starting on Sunday to get input from residents towards crafting the 2022 financial plan.

During meetings held on Sunday, council officials could not have an opportunity to present their plans for the coming year as residents insisted on waiting for the supplementary budget to be approved before consultations can be done.

A meeting that had been set for Ward 2 and the business community at the council grounds was cancelled on Monday as participants did not turn up.

However, residents appear to be divided on the budget as the Ward 1 and 3 meeting went ahead on Monday morning.

Speaking during the botched meetings, residents said it will be unfair to craft a budget for 2022 as that will mean they will continue paying high bills.

“We wonder why the supplementary budget is delaying. I propose we stop this process until we have the supplementary budget,” said one resident at a meeting held at Chamabondo Primary School.

Similar sentiments were raised by other residents on the same platform and at other meetings.

Council authorities are however, concerned that delaying start of the budget making process will affect service delivery in the new financial year.

Acting town clerk Ms Kholwani Mangena said residents should understand that crafting of a budget is a process.

“We are also worried about the supplementary budget, it’s an issue we are seized with and we will give you an update next week,” she said.

Speaking at the same meeting, council housing and community services director Mr Brian Nyamande said: “The prevailing voice is that we delay this process until there is a supplementary budget. We respect your views and accept to wait but we have to make some things clear because there are implications.

A budget has timelines and if we fail to do it in time it means we may start the year without an approved budget and not be able to do service delivery.”

According to the Urban Councils Act, a local authority can only bill ratepayers using an approved budget.

In a later interview, Victoria Falls mayor Councillor Somveli Dlamini said council is waiting for Government’s approval of the supplementary budget.

“As a local authority however, we feel we are behind time because budgets have timeframes. I believe residents should have allowed us to kick-start the process as we wait for the supplementary budget so that come January we have a new plan,” he said.

However, a letter from the Ministry of Local Government to council in April after the local authority had requested to do a supplementary budget, shows that the council can implement a supplementary budget through a resolution and notify the ministry, in terms of the Urban Councils Act.

“In line with Section 288 (5) of the Urban Councils Act and Section 47 of the Public Finance Management Act, as read with section 13 of the Public Financed Management Act (General) Regulations 2019, it is within the council’s powers to review its budget recognising economic tariff setting requirements of SI 135 section 13 of 2019.

“The tariff review reflects that the 2021 budget process was not properly conducted. Council is therefore, advised to prepare a supplementary budget after adequately consulting ratepayers.

To facilitate service delivery, council may adopt and implement the supplementary budget by resolution and submit copy of the same to the Ministry,” read a correspondence signed by Eng H Hungwe. — @ncubeleon