Itai Muzondo
GWERU: In a shocking revelation, the City of Gweru Finance Committee chairperson recently told a full council meeting that they cannot take action over government bills debt since they resemble a ‘parent’ figure to the local authority.
Ward 7 councilor, Hlupeko Marufu, who chairs the finance committee was responding to council follow up on strategies his committee had set to recover an undisclosed amount owed to council by government institutions.
“We have no set strategy than to engage relevant Ministries over debt. Government is like our mother and we cannot implement repressive measures as we may do in other instances.
“As one may never use a repressive approach to a mother, we may as well not be hard on government and to this point, I will maintain that we will simply engage,” said Cllr Marufu.
The development comes at a time government remains one of the biggest owing institutions to the City of Gweru.
This is also regardless of the fact that residents have often been disconnected from water services and in some instances have their properties attached in times council follow up to owing residents.
Councilors however protested his submissions saying the committee should device a way to recover money owed or they should face punitive measures as council also often face follow ups from service providers as ZESA.
“Why should these institutions be treated differently? When we fail to pay ZESA we are cut off regardless of our position as policy makers in the city,” Ward 14 councilor Danny Ndava argued.
“The residents suffer if this continues and we should find effective ways to recover the ballooning debt. These ways should also be effective all round to include local businesses,” said Gweru Mayor Martin Chivhoko in response to the issue.
Women’s quota proportional representation councilor Fortunate Mlambo was however of the opinion that the Minister of State should be engaged so that council has access to direct negotiation with Ministries owing towards arranging payment plans.
Meanwhile, an investigation held by this publication back in 2021 revealed that government departments and institutions were the City’s biggest single unit debtors with money owed by five government departments almost totalling that which is owed by 10 (+) biggest owing institutions.
The figures showed that by end 2020, Ministry of Defense topped the debtor’s list owing ZWD8, 066, 073.55 with the Zimbabwe Military Academy and Air Force of Zimbabwe owing ZWD1, 167,908.41 and ZWD6, 898,165.14 respectively.
This was followed by the local authority’s parent Ministry, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing that owed ZWD4, 005,361.61.
Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Judicial Services Commission under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs owed ZWD3, 127, 686.61; ZWD1, 280, 486.39 and ZWD61, 140.25 respectively.
All figures were in local currency.
