RICHARD SHUMBA
Gweru Residents and the local authority yesterday were up in arms over the issue of USD billing which is set to take effect in April this year, saying that the council was further worsening the livelihoods of people by billing them in foreign currency.
Speaking during a community engagement meeting organized by the Gweru Residents and Rate Payers Association at the YWCA Centre in Mkoba 1, a 76-year-old who identified himself as “VaMakaza” said that the priorities of the council were misplaced which had resulted in residents being burdened by bills they could not afford to pay.
“USD billing is benefiting the council and not residents I struggle to pay my debts, yet you continue to add interest and estimate my rates where do you think I get the money from, you are burdening me because my debt will force me to go to the black market and get us dollars,” he said.
Another Mkoba 20 resident’s resident Evelyn Magaya also lamented that the move to pay bills in us dollars will see a lot of people having their property attached as has been the norm with the council as people will not be able to pay in the required US dollar currency.
“You will realize that due to this development, several people will have their property attached because no one has us dollars. This Issue of attachment of property pains us because even if my property is attached all the money ends up going to court nothing goes to the council, so we don’t see how attaching people’s properties benefits the council it’s better for you to encourage us to pay bills through dialogue,” she said.
Another 50-year-old resident Reginald Makuvere also said that although it was bad enough to be billed in us dollars council was also not even providing water for the past three years and yet residents were paying for services unrendered for.
“In woodlands, we have more than three years without a single drop of water coming out and we know you were not yet in office until we wrote a petition disputing the bills that we were given as council which is daylight robbery because we are being billed for services, we did not enjoy hence we are suffering for other people’s crimes because as old people we pay religiously but we are not rewarded accordingly,” he said.
He further went on to question the local authority’s appetite to buy luxurious cars at the expense of service delivery hence enjoying taxpayers’ money.
“Recently we heard that council procured 2 state-of-the-art executive cars, yet council does not even have one ambulance working, is it of particular importance for council to buy luxurious cars like those yet we don’t have an efficient service delivery,” he said.
However, Gweru City Council Mayor Martin Chivhoko clarified their position on the issue of USD billing over fears widely held by residents that they were no longer allowed to pay in USD.
“We realized as a council that we are in debt so what happens is that by the time residents pay in local currency the rate would have been hit by inflation after a year or so which is seriously inconveniencing the council so we decided to convert all bills to us dollars to preserve the value of that particular debt meaning that if we bill a certain person for example 20 us if he fails to pay all year round by the time he decides to come and pay his bill he /she will still be able to pay in local currency but only using the prevailing rate of that particular day so the idea is to just maintain the value,” he said.
Chivhoko further reiterated that the issue of adding interest to residents who were not complying was a necessary evil which was meant to motivate people to pay their bills on time.
“Then on the issue of interest it was realized that we have people who are not coming forthwith to pay their bills then it was decided that they should at least pay a little interest and our technical staff initially wanted 130 % but then we resolved we maintained 5% interest per annum,” he said.
