Takudzwa Changadeya
… pressure groups call for improved service delivery
CHITUNGWIZA Municipality has launched a door-to-door revenue collection exercise which is expected to run until 17 October 2024.
In a public notice, the municipality stated, “Chitungwiza Municipality is embarking on a door-to-door revenue collection exercise to enhance convenience for residents and other stakeholders. Our teams will be moving around residential areas and business centres with point-of-sale (POS) machines, allowing you to pay bills from the comfort of your homes, offices, or businesses.”
Council also said the exercise was meant to improve revenue collection which had seen ratepayers debt increasing due to non-payment of services.
“Council was being owed ZIG159 million as of August 31. The blitz is targeting residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial properties,” said the Municipality spokesperson, Tafadzwa Kachiko said.
“We are bringing the payment services to the residents’ doorsteps. Previously, we waited for people to visit banking halls, and that did not really work,” he added.
Kachiko acknowledged that the council has faced service delivery challenges, including unpaid worker salaries, which have accumulated and said ratepayer’s debt was part of the reason the Municipality had failed to meet its service delivery obligations.
He encouraged ratepayers to take advantage of the door-to-door service or use traditional banking methods to clear their dues.
However, the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has raised concerns saying such a prosses should have been done post consultations.
The organisation also argued that the program will push people to pay for services they have not been getting thereby leaving them ‘shortchanged’.
“This move was supposed to be an all-stakeholder approach, including consulting the residents on their opinions.
“Service delivery by the responsible authorities has been very poor, so residents are going to be short-changed, paying for services they did not receive adequately,” CHRA programs manager said.
They also called for greater transparency in the municipality’s handling of funds.
“There is a need to audit how the collected money is going to be used, as well as how much is owed by the residents. The entire collection process needs to be transparent,” the organisation added.
The blitz is targeting at least 30 000 properties in Chitungwiza.
