Gweru residents are set for a major showdown with the city fathers after the local authority bosses rejected a proposal by rate payers to stagger the implementation of the 2021 budget in trying to accommodate the plight of the community.
The residents had written a letter to the city fathers seeking a reprieve on the implementation of the budget which had seen most households receiving bills in excess of 400 percent from the rates they were paying last year in the face of diminished money flows.
Gweru Residents and Rate Payers Association (GRRA)- Secretary-General Mr Cornelius Selipiwe explained the situation on the ground to ZBC News.
Gweru is hugely a market economy. What we found out is that most residents could not afford the huge bills that were presented by council authorities. We then tried to engage them through a letter where we proposed the staggering of the implementation of the budget saying 50 per cent in the first half of the year and eventually 100 per cent in the second half to allow residents most of whom were affected by the lockdown to recover. Unfortunately, our proposal has since been turned down through this letter,
By refusing to listen to our concerns they have just shown us their true colours. We voted these people into office hoping that they were going to put our concerns ahead of everything else by we are being short-changed by the way they are treating us. We have two options one of which is to boycott the payment of water bills and the other is to demonstrate against them. We will go back to the people and make resolutions on how to confront them, he said.
Gweru City Council through its Spokesperson Ms Vimbai Chingwaramuse exhibited adamancy over the implementation of the budget in its current form as the only way for them to offer quality service delivery.
“We have the best interests of residents at heart. However, we come up with these budgets bearing in mind the outlook of the economy. We need to buy water chemicals and fuel, pay salaries and our vehicles also require maintenance. We could not buy-in on the request by the residents as we need the money for us to function. Remember this is our main source of revenue and as such we put a lot of issues under consideration before we came up with the decision,” explained Chingwaramuse.
The city fathers are under fire for coming up with the high water bills at a time most suburbs go for more than three weeks without the precious liquid, a situation that has angered most residents who feel robbed by the local authority.
-State Media