Suburban
THE City of Harare continues to charge residents who visit its district offices requesting for hard copies of their bill statements.
Suburban Reporter
Baffled by the move, residents have been questioning the logic behind making them pay for printed copies of their bill statements yet the municipality is failing to provide them with the statements on a monthly basis even via email or SMS.
Some residents said they had not been receiving their bill statements and decided to visit the council district office to get a statement.
Upon requesting for the bill statement, the residents are being asked to pay US$7 leaving them wondering what council needs the money for when it is failing to email the bills.
Other residents said they were being charged US$10 raising even more questions because of the discrepancies in the figures being charged.
However, the residents were told that they should not be paying to get a bill statement as this was tantamount to extortion.
The discussion heard that some were refusing to pay for the statements and council will eventually send some hand delivered bill statements.
The municipality is even sending letters of final demand to residents but is failing to give them their bill statements.
Residents demanded Mt Pleasant district officer Mrs Marian Mverechena to address the issue because they felt it did not make sense to refuse to give property owners a printout at the district office then print it and hand deliver it.
Mrs Mverechena told residents she was engaging her fellow council officials in the finance department to get an explanation on the matter.
“Morning, am engaging the revenue manager on the issue, will give you feed back. It’s not at district level it’s council wide,” she said.
At that point, residents were told about yet another different charge of US$5 for one to get a hard copy of their bill statement.
Recently, Ward 17 ratepayers said the municipality was terribly failing to address the billing chaos with most of them not receiving monthly bill statements while the city’s rates are rising every month.
The few residents who had received their latest bills said they were billed amounts ranging from $235 000 to $800 000 for residential and commercial properties, which some described as phantom and a joke.
For a number of years, the City of Harare has not been sending residents monthly bill statements and residents have had to inquire each time they want to make payments.
A few years ago, the city stopped using a reliable billing system following a dispute with a South African supplier resulting in the municipality failing to produce monthly bill statements.
Council urged residents to provide details such as emails and mobile phone numbers in order to get e-bills. Residents obliged but the system still failed to produce bills for all ratepayers.
Council also came up with digital payment platforms but these have been failing to capture payments, much to the disappointment of ratepayers meeting their monthly obligations.
The discussions were sparked by statistics shared at the Ward 17 pre-budget meeting which showed an average bill payment rate of only 3 percent for Ward 17.
According to the statistics, council billed a total of $801 595 014,53 between January and July this year but realised only $22 937 169,74 in revenue leaving an outstanding debt of $790 447 762,48.
Property owners said it was difficult to make any payments when they don’t receive bill statements or have to chase council officials to be given inflated statements billing them for non-delivered services such as water and refuse collection.
Suggestions were made for those using gmail accounts to try alternative email addresses because council was claiming that bills sent to gmail accounts are bouncing.
However, some residents said they had sent alternative emails but were still not getting bills although others said they had received their bills on alternative emails.
Those making internet transfers to council’s bankers say when they approach officials at Mt Pleasant District Office with their proof of payment, they are told to go and email the proof of payment, which are never captured.
Residents wondered why the City of Harare could not come up with an e-billing system which shows ratepayers up to date information about their accounts the same way banks do for their clients.
They were disgusted at being asked to visit numerous council offices to get their bills sorted at a time when the world had made technological advances which make it possible for people to transact even from the comfort of their homes.
Appalled by the billing chaos, residents made it clear it was not their business to run around council offices to cover up for a system that does not work.
The discussion heard that council’s billing system will not be solved at least until January 2023 but residents were urged to continue paying their rates because they might face debt collectors if their debts continue to balloon.
In response, some ratepayers said they could only pay for delivered bills and should not be expected to be asking for their bills every month.
Reacting to a Suburban story on the Ward 17 figures, a resident from Ward 41 said the municipality’s billing inefficiencies were deliberate and meant to “camouflage dubious transactions” adding that council does not give residents proper bills and corresponding services lest the “gravy train comes to a screeching halt”.
