“Similarly amounts owed by residents in respect of rates since February 2009 stand prescribed in terms of section 15 of the Prescription Act,” said Chombo.
However, outgoing councillors in the City of Harare have slammed his move as cheap politicking because during their tenure, the same Minister refused to have the 2011 budget cut to allow residents access to cheaper services. In an interview, ECAZ president, Councillor Warship Dumba added that the Minister has no legal mandate to do a blanket slash because these decisions have got to be motioned by councillors and endorsed by him. He also argued that this could lead to chaos in all local authorities because residents will stop paying their bills and the effect is felt when it comes to procurement of inputs like water treatment chemicals.
The Minister has on several occasions reversed progressive full council decisions made by most urban local authorities especially those that are MDC dominated. At some point in time, H.C.C made a suggestion of having the evaluation and urban planning departments independent of each other to allow transparency and accountability in land allocation, but he rescinded that call sighting reasons best known to him. He is also the master minder of such atrocious policies such as Operation Murambatsvina and the handing of water and sewer reticulation services to ZINWA which saw hundreds of Zimbabweans dying of Cholera after the later failed to manage and deliver the service.
To that end, CHRA would like to urge residents to get official Council/municipal statements indicating that their debts have indeed been cancelled. The call made by the Minister was simply a verbal decree made at a political rally with no binding effect on it. We can confirm that Harare City council and Bulawayo City council have so far not received any directive to that effect hence it does not suffice for residents to start ignoring their bills.
Post published in: News