BINDURA The broke mining town of Bindura has resorted to selling stands so that it can to pay its workers who have gone for six months without salaries.The town is failing to collect enough revenue from its 10,000 residents, most of whom are jobless after the closure of local mines.
Acting Mayor of Bindura Ivory Matanhire said that the town was in serious debt as it was collecting less than half of its projected monthly revenue from residents.
Presently we employ 363 workers and we are struggling to pay them their salaries on time as a result we are forced to sell land to private owners in order to meet the salary bill only.
Under normal circumstances the town of Bindura would collect a monthly revenue of $460,000, but is now collecting only $150,000.
Unhappy with services in the town where roads are potholed and some areas go for months without water, residents of the town have stopped paying for water and other services.
There are some people who are not paying their rates out of frustration and others who are not paying the rates because they consider themselves the owners of the town simply because of their political connections. This leaves us in a fix, said the Mayor.
The Ministry of Local Government has not yet approved the budget for Bindura after it found mistakes in the proposed budget.
Our budget was full of mistakes and the Ministry has indicated that they are going to come and help us with drafting the proposal. This, of course, has left us with no other source of money save from collecting from ratepayers who do not have the money, said the Mayor.
The town has seen its efforts to coerce defaulting residents into paying rates by disconnecting water supplies rates scuttled by a government directive. UNICEF has also been drilling boreholes to give residents an alternative source of water.
Post published in: Economy