Suburban
Harare residents are suing the City of Harare for failing to remit the 25 percent ward retention funds in all the 46 wards in the capital city.
Suburban Reporter
Through the Combined Harare Residents Association, the residents have approached the High Court seeking an order to compel the City of Harare to implement its resolution of February 23, 2017 to remit 25 percent of collected revenue in each ward for development at the ward level.
According to papers filed by the CHRA, the City of Harare has not disbursed any money to date since the adoption of the resolution.
In the application lodged by Harare law firm Scanlen and Holderness, CHRA wants the High Court to grant it a relief order for;
The Harare City Council to remit 25 percent of the rates collected in 46 wards in Harare as per council resolution made in 2017.
The Acting Finance director to open designated bank accounts with a duly registered commercial bank in Zimbabwe for each residential ward in Harare for collection of rate payments from residents.
The City of Harare and the Acting Finance Director to remit 25 percent of the rates collected in the 46 residential wards in Harare no later than the last day of every month that follows.
The City of Harare and the Acting Finance Director to remit 25 percent of the rates collected before the date of this order within 30 days of service of the order on it.
The City of Harare, acting Harare Mayor Councillor Stewart Mutizwa, acting town clerk Mabhena Moyo, the director of works, acting finance director and the Minister of Local Government and Public Works July Moyo are cited as first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth respondents respectively.
The court action comes at a time when the local authority is failing to supply the equipment needed to attend to sewer blockages, grass cutting, and water bursts at local district offices.
“On the 23rd of February 2017, Harare City Council resolved to remit 25 percent of revenue collected on each ward to be used for developmental initiatives for each ward but nothing has been disbursed to date,” argues the residents body.
The Ward retention fund is meant to cater to locally identified developmental projects that will not be prioritised in the Capital budgets for the respective local area.
Last year during the budget consultations between the municipality and ratepayers, residents suggested the revival of the ward retention scheme to improve service delivery.
Of late service delivery meetings held in some northern suburbs have also heard the need to implement the ward retention scheme as a way of empowering residents to take part in deciding which community projects need funding at the ward level.
In last year’s pre-budget consultative deliberations, Ward 17 residents recommended that an effective decentralisation of resources to wards to ensure service delivery at the local level.
The residents felt the rates retention scheme under which council would pay 25 percent of the revenue collected from ratepayers back into a particular ward’s development fund to bankroll services in that particular ward was an effective way of delivering services.
Six years ago, the City of Harare resolved to implement the 25 percent ward retention scheme but it failed to take off largely because some ratepayers owe council large amounts of money running into hundreds of millions of dollars while at the same time the municipality was not generating adequate revenue for the scheme to be viable.
Some ratepayers notably in Ward 17, Mt Pleasant and in Ward 7, Avondale even suggested a name and shame exercise to publicise the top debtors as a way of compelling them to pay so the wards could get their retention funds.
Residents insisted in the 2021 pre-budget meetings that a way had to be found to revive the scheme and it make it work.
