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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

VICTORIA Falls Municipality (VFM) is planning to review downwards its proposed $354 million 2020 budget after realising that the economy has remained stable since it crafted the proposal last year.

The local authority’s budget, which was submitted to Government and is awaiting approval, amounts to an 800 percent increase from last year’s $22 million budget.

Recently, Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said the budget had taken into consideration the prevailing economic challenges.

However, deputy mayor Councillor Patricia Mwale raised a motion during a full council meeting on Thursday urging the municipal finance committee to review rates quoted in the budget proposal.

“May the committee please note the item written rates for review,” said Cllr Mwale.

The town’s Mayor Cllr Somveli Dlamini concurred saying there was a need to consider the fact that inflation had not skyrocketed as had been anticipated.

“When we proposed the budget, we anticipated that in January inflation would have skyrocketed but this has turned out to be different. May the finance committee sit for a special committee meeting so we can then discuss it in the next full council meeting,” said Cllr Dlamini.

The municipality budget proposal was meant to mainly tackle water and sanitation problems as well as fix the road network among other capital projects.

In the event that the suggested review of the budget succeeds, it will come as a relief to ratepayers who were expected to pay more as per the 2020 proposal.

The resort town has perennial water challenges owing to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)’s lack of capacity to pump from the Zambezi River. The municipal management had hoped that Government would transfer water management to the local authority from Zinwa to improve the situation but that has not happened two years after an application was lodged. – @ncubeleon.