The Mayor of Mutare, Cllr Tatenda Nhamarare, says the government directive paralysed the local authority’s service delivery. “The City of Mutare was greatly affected by the 2013 directive. Residents may have benefited temporarily, but right now we are faced with financial challenges to clear the debt to some of our creditors, especially Zinwa,” said Nhamarare.
He lamented that while government cancelled the arrears that residents owed the council, they failed to clear the debt to Zinwa. This left the council swimming in a pool of debt, which it is struggling to clear.
“What the directive meant is that, as council we buy water from Zinwa and residents buy water from us. So when government scrapped residents’ water bills they didn’t clear our debt to Zinwa. This meant that the arrears accumulated from 2008 up to the effected day had to be assumed by council and had to be settled to Zinwa,” he said.
The local authority now owes several creditors – chief among them Zinwa, Zimra and NSSA. “This is why you see us facing the challenges that we face today. We are being forced to divert the money that was supposed to pay our workers because Zinwa is demanding its money.
“They don’t negotiate. If you don’t pay their money, they proceed to garnish your accounts, the same with NSSA. So at the present moment, we are facing these challenges,” he lamented.
The local authority has been left with a huge accumulative debt that now stands at $25 million.
Moreover, the town clerk Obert Muzawazi revealed it owes its 1,500 workers over $3 million. He is on record criticising the politically motivated directive that was ordered by Zanu (PF) to curry favour with voters before the 2013 election.
In a bid to rectify his mess, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has issued another directive that will see all councils channel 70 percent of their budgets toward service delivery. Mutare has tabled its 2015 budget to the parent ministry for approval – with capital expenditure amounting to $18 million. Muzawazi said they faced huge challenges in adjusting the budget to the new directive considering that they owe their workers 11 months of unpaid salaries.
Post published in: News