…peri-urban areas remain in limbo, included in valuation rolls
CommuTalk Reporter
GWERU: Vungu Rural District Council has proposed an unchanged budget for 2025 saying the 2024 budget did not meet their expectations.
Vungu RDC Chief Executive Officer Alex Magura said they had already advertised the proposed tariffs and called for any objections or comments which residents may have.
“Council is not proposing any increase. The proposal is for tariffs to generally, remain at their 2024 levels. Increments that may come will be in the case of property taxes whereby we are proposing to move away from development levies to property taxes based on valuation rolls,” he said.
“As at the end of the third quarter budget performance was approximately standing at 45 percent.
“Some of our ratepayers have not been forthcoming in terms of honouring their dues to council,” he added.
The performance has also been affected by government’s failure to disburse devolution funds.
“This has negatively affected service delivery. Many projects that we intended to carry out could not be done,” he further said.
Magura also went on to highlight that council intended to procure roads equipment but that has not been possible.
He added, “We also wanted to drill boreholes around the district and install a piped water scheme in Ward 19 and to commence the construction of a clinic in Ward 18”.
Vungu RDC is however still within the 30 day window allowed by the Rural District Councils Act for residents to submit their objections or comments.
The RDC also says they are going around the district meeting with residents to give them feedback about the 2024 budget and present proposals for the 2025 budget.
Meanwhile, peri-urban settlements such as Woodlands, Hertfordshire, Northgate Heights, Ridgemont Heights, Claremont Park, Raylands, Tatenda Park, Little Eden and others remain in limbo as Vungu has announced that they have been included in the local authority’s valuation rolls.
This leaves them with no given center of service delivery, an issue that has affected them since their inception as the City of Gweru has also included them and asked for their participation in the oncoming budget consultations.
These locations geographically fall under Vungu RDC and they have often complained of no clear representation as their wards are under the RDC while they pay for services to the City of Gweru.
The situation has seen their councilors attending full council meetings in Vungu while their services are supposed to be provided by the City of Gweru.
