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Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
VICTORIA Falls City Council has presented a US$22 million budget proposal for 2025, down from US$23 million this year, with community empowerment projects targeting youth, women and informal traders top on the priority list.
The budget is derived from the objective of providing efficient, accessible and affordable service delivery in a sustainable manner and was formulated in line with the national Vision 2030 of an upper middle-income economy.
Ward 6 Cllr Derreck Munsaka who chairs the finance committee, read the budget proposal statement in the full council on Tuesday and said the local authority is guided by economic growth that is estimated at 5 percent next year with tourism one of the major drivers.
The local authority noted with excitement the rising occupancy in hotels and lodges showing growing confidence in the destination through efforts of the private sector such as the ‘We are Victoria Falls’ initiative which also came up with the Wonder to Wonder marketing platform for Victoria Falls and Cape Town in South Africa.
Airlines flying into Zimbabwe have increased from 3 in 2020 to around 20 in 2024 as a result of the open skies policy, the council noted.
The council plans to allocate gas cubicles to women and unemployed residents, car washing bays to the youth, create Small to Medium Enterprises shell shelters as well as allow commercial properties to change use or convert to mini-malls in the 2025 budget year.
“In the following year 2025, council anticipates to do the following to unlock value chains and strengthen individuals, households, SMEs, to generate incomes and create employment,” reads the budget proposal.
In a follow-up interview, the city’s finance director Mr Nevile Ndlovu said the council had met budget timelines set by the Central Government.
“Our budget process progressed well and we have reached a stage where council has approved the budget. We have gone through the advertising and consultation stage and from here we are going to finalise the budget and we are earmarking to submit on the 15th of November as requested by the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works,” said Mr Ndlovu.
“Our budget is US$22 million which is income that we are hoping to receive during 2025.”
He said the bulk of the money will come from property taxing, user charges and other ancillary services that council provides to the residents.
Mr Ndlovu said the council had set aside US$3.3 million for servicing of about 500 housing stands on the BE100 scheme which should be completed within 10 months from this month.
BB5 and Railway Loop schemes are also being serviced and council expects to spend about US$2.1 million while upgrading of water pump on the Zambezi River and installing more pumps at the purification plant.
The council is also installing reservoirs in Mkhosana Suburb and expects to complete the exercise in 2025.
Mr Ndlovu said revenue inflows had been subdued with just over 60 percent collected in the current budget and legal measures are being instituted to recover what is owed.
“Our 2024 budget was US$23 million and we reduced by a small margin to US$22 million, this is due to reduced projects during the course of 2025. This 2024 has been a very difficult year due to changes in the monitory policies which affected how residents are paying.
“We have collected about 64 percent of revenue and we are owed over ZiG308 million by residents and this has affected how the council has performed during the year. The council has intensified revenue collection measures such as water disconnections. We have been advising residents who are owing about water disconnections and we are going to be taking legal action and sending final demands and even attaching properties,” he said.
Victoria Falls City Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said the budget was pegged in United States dollars to preserve value in case of unexpected inflation.
“We submitted our final draft of US$22 million to the council today but our key focus area in the budget will be on youth empowerment where we want to provide some bays for youth to come up with some businesses so that they can sustain their livelihoods. We are also looking at women empowerment and disabled people as we want to cover all sectors of our community.
“Our capital budget focuses on projects which we started in 2024, particularly our water infrastructure. We are on time in terms of submitting to the parent ministry for approval,” he said.
With regards to the current budget, Mr Dube acknowledged that ratepayers were struggling to meet their obligations and said there was a need to reach a compromise and cut unnecessary expenditure in line with current income.
“We are persuading our ratepayers to continue making an effort so that we meet service delivery. We hope that as we march into 2025 the same mantra will be preserved where we are expecting to continuously make payments so that council can effectively meet service delivery mandate,” he said.
Cllr Mthunzi Mpofu of Ward 9 also encouraged residents to pay their dues for effective service delivery.
The budget theme is “Building resilience for sustained economic transformation.”
-@ncubeleon