Suburban
STILL battling to fix its chaotic billing system, the City of Harare has come up with another way in which ratepayers can inquire about their bills via WhatsApp.
Suburban Reporter
On Tuesday this week, the city sent out notice informing residents that they could make use of a council WhatsApp hotline +263788654356 to request for their bills.
This is one of the numerous initiatives the municipality has come up with in recent years to enable ratepayers and property owners to get their bills following the emails and SMS, which seem not be working for all the residents at the moment as some are not receiving bills.
Even those who visit council district offices and other municipal offices in town to enquire about their bills, they have to endure waiting in long winding queues to be given the latest balances on their bill statements.
After waiting in a long queue one can also be disappointed by being told that council has still not billed for that particular month.
Those who request print outs of their statements are being asked to pay amounts ranging from US$5 to US$10.
Two weeks ago Ward 17 residents reported that the City of Harare continues to charge them for requesting hard copies of their bill statements.
Ward 17 (Mt Pleasant, Northwood, Groombridge, Mt Pleasant Heights, Vainona, Pomona and Borrowdale West) 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.
The introduction of a WhatsApp bills hotline follows last week’s announcement by council to start charging interest on outstanding bills from October 31.
But residents’ associations were quick to dismiss the move saying the city is perennially failing ratepayers and is now resorting to punishing residents to cover up its gross incompetence by seeking to charge interest on outstanding bills.
The residents’ bodies said they are mobilising their members to challenge the municipality’s move in the courts of law.
“The City of Harare would like to advise its valued ratepayers, residents and stakeholders that it will begin to levy interest on all outstanding balances from October 31, 2022.
“All residents with outstanding balances are therefore encouraged to clear their balances before this date or approach council finance offices for payment plans to avoid the interest charges.
“The interest charges have been necessitated by the need to preserve the value of money so that service delivery can be funded. You can pay your bill via the option below,” acting town clerk Engineer Phakamile Mabhena Moyo said in a notice to ratepayers.
Immediately after publishing the notice on its social media platforms, residents boldly told the municipality that the decision was unacceptable because council also owes residents because they have been paying for non-delivered services such as water and refuse collection.
Residents’ representative bodies across the capital said the City of Harare has failed residents time and again and now wants to punish the same residents for its gross incompetence.
Recently, ratepayers complained that 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. In Ward 17, 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.
Some residents have 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”.
