Suburban
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
THE City of Harare has admitted that it is penalising residents who are paying their rates and service charges by raising their bills to cover up for the defaulting ratepayers.
A top city official told Suburban a small percentage of residents were paying their monthly bills leaving the municipality with a paralysing deficit and unable to fund services.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the municipality’s current charges which have drawn concern from paying ratepayers were higher because the local authority was trying to keep afloat.
“Council is now penalising the law abiding citizens, who are paying their bills. Council is increasing bills so that a small percentage which is paying their bills can cover for the others who are not paying, which is just not fair,” the council official admitted.
Last month a service delivery meeting at Marlborough district office heard that the suburb had the lowest number of residents who pay their rates with only 11 percent paying their bills.
The meeting sought to establish the problems incapacitating council from delivering services to residents of Ward 41.
A revenue officer told the meeting that only 11 percent of Marlborough ratepayers were paying as the percentage continues to dwindle because two years ago 38 percent of the ratepayers were meeting their obligations. Of late Harare residents have been receiving high bills leaving them to question the figures and how the municipality was arriving at the rates and service charges. Residents have also been questioning the continued billing for services such as water and refuse collection yet the municipality is not providing these services.
For example, property tax for Harare residents has gone up by almost 165 percent as the city council implements the pegging of rates and service charges in United States dollars although payable in local currency at the prevailing official bank rate.
The residents pointed out that the situation is not helping anyone as the bills are now unaffordable for many yet the majority of residents are still complaining that they are not getting services.
A Borrowdale resident recently gave a breakdown of the tariffs and how this will affect the residents.
“So, the CoH (City of Harare) property tax increased hugely effective February 2022. My property tax went from $7 736.72 to $20 549.06 in March 2022 and then because this tariff is pegged in USD it went up again in April 2022 to $21847.17 due to exchange rate fluctuations. So, January was billed in old tariffs (January 2021 tariffs hence the huge difference) and February was billed in new tariffs.
“We understand that rates needed to go up but this drastic increase makes them unaffordable to most ratepayers. A lot of people are in arrears as they were objecting to receiving no services and therefore weren’t paying. So they now have those arrears plus this major increase to pay as final demands are being issued,” said the Borrowdale resident.
In some medium density suburbs such as Mainway Meadows in Waterfalls with an average stand size of between 500 square metres and 800 square metres, residents are complaining that they are billed as a low density suburb. The residents claimed their bills are actually written low density yet it’s a medium density area.
Another resident from the northern suburbs said they recently went to pay their rates at their local district office and were told that these were now denominated in United States dollars and the Zimbabwe dollar amount is determined by the rate on the day of payment.
Residents said the move had come as a surprise to them given that the City of Harare had given those with outstanding amounts a three-month notice to either clear the debts or agree payment plans. Council said those who failed to take action within the three months would have their bills converted into foreign currency.
In March council announced plans to dollarise debts owed by residents and other ratepayers three months after debtors are invited to negotiate payment plans.
“Residents who fail to retire their debts within three months of being invited to negotiate payment plans will have their outstanding debts converted to United States dollars at the interbank rate and pay the debts in US$,” the municipality posted on its Twitter handle.
The local authority argued that unpaid debts were losing value owing to inflation.
“Money owed to council is losing value daily and when it is finally paid, it will not meet its budgeted targets. Hedging the debts against the United States dollar will help council maintain value when it’s finally paid,” the City of Harare argued.
In its 2022 budget, the municipality had increased its rates and services by between 37,5 percent to 67 percent effective from February 1 but residents condemned the move saying council risked losing revenue as ratepayers will simply not pay because they are not getting any services.
The new rates and charges for an average high density householder rose to $2 387, up from $1 736 while an average low density suburb family saw their monthly bill rise to $7 630, up from last year’s $4 558.
Zimbabwe Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association (ZICORRA) Harare provincial director Mr Lawrence Kuleya recently confirmed his organisation had received numerous complaints from residents over the continued rise in rates and service charges.
He urged the local authority to realise that its mandate was to provide services to the people and not steal from the ratepayers.
“Many residents are complaining about high bills with zero service delivery. Council must prioritise service delivery ahead of everything else. Had the high rates been doing something tangible to residents it would have been better given the state of the economy. But there is nothing on the ground to justify their rate increases. Given what they prioritise, it seems council is forgetting that they are a service provider to residents. Council as an institution must not follow the black market rates but follow the gazetted (official Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) rates. It’s unfair on residents most of whom don’t earn income based on black market rates,” said Mr Kuleya.
