BCC inefficiency exposed as residents’ debt balloons

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
THE MDC-Alliance-run Bulawayo City Council has been called out for failure to find innovative ways to collect revenue which has seen residents owing close to a billion dollars.

Due to the incompetence of council, ratepayers did not pay over $140 million in just two months.

The failure to collect revenue has crippled service provision, with the local authority at times saying it could not collect garbage due to fuel challenges.

Last week council revealed that by the end of last year, it was owed $807 million by residents and institutions.

Council said residents living in the city’s affluent suburbs like Burnside and Hillside are among those who have accumulated the highest unpaid bills.

Council yesterday said by mid-March, the debt had increased to over $943 million.

Responding to questions from Chronicle, council corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said they have since intensified citywide water disconnections to encourage rates payment.

“With the suspension of water shedding, the disconnection programme is now spreading throughout the city. It was impractical to disconnect water during the water shedding period in areas that were under shedding. As at 17 March 2021 the amount owed stood at $943 364 855.23,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She said failure to pay bills was affecting service delivery as most service providers want cash for their products.

“Suppliers of materials and inputs required for service delivery such as fuel, chemicals, consumables, among others have suspended council’s credit facilities and are insisting on cash on delivery which means we can only provide service equivalent to what residents pay,” she said.

Mrs Mpofu said some of the services that have been affected include “collection of refuse, grass cutting after the good rainy season, road maintenance, and rehabilitation and repairing water and sewer infrastructure are affected by depleted finances.”

She encouraged residents to pay their bills for the local authority to effectively provide service.

Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni said residents complain about service delivery, even though they are not paying their bills.

“The main service delivery ingredient is fuel. When we have fuel suppliers saying I cannot supply in advance it means we have to buy for cash. We won’t be having that cash as residents would not have paid their bills.

“The effects of non-payment of bills will be seen in failure to collect refuse, it will be seen in slow road rehabilitation. As you might have observed we have started road rehabilitation but if the vehicles we use do not have fuel, it will affect the implementation of the exercise. We have outstanding projects, without fuel those projects will not be done. So, there are a lot of downstream effects of not paying bills,” said Clr Mguni.

He said failure to pay bills also affects council employees who are also supposed to provide services. “This also means that we are not going to be up to date with the payment of council employees’ salaries. It affects their moral as they discharge their duties as they are sometimes owed salaries for two to three months. Therefore, we are calling on residents to pay up their bills and we are also saying those facing challenges should visit council revenue offices and come up with payment plans to clear arrears,” he said.

Bulawayo provincial development co-ordinator Mr Paul Nyoni said council needs to innovate to promote payment of bills as there is no culture promoting rates payment.

Mr Nyoni said while economic factors were contributing to non-payment of bills, there is also evidence of religious payment where pre-payment for services is employed.

He said most people were now paying electricity bills as a result of the pre-payment system.

Mr Nyoni said members of the public while failing to pay council bills somehow manage to pay for internet and other services.

“We need to innovate around encouraging people to pay bills. Maybe have a discounted system to encourage rates payments. At the moment they are just penalising people for defaulting on payments. But what about discounting those who make early payments. For example, if you pay earlier than usual, you get a certain discount, if you pay let’s say constantly within 60 days have another discount and then penalise those who do not make payments within 90 days. The long and short of it is that councils cannot afford to give services for free. We must pay for services,” said Mr Nyoni.

Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (BPRA) co-ordinator Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu said council has not done enough to ensure residents realise the value of rates payments.

“There is a need for serious campaigns to make sure residents realise the value of rates payment. Of course, we cannot ignore the narrative of declining service delivery. But beyond that, efforts should be made by both council and association of ratepayers to ensure that rate payments improve. This issue of rate payments has a ripple effect, residents need to know that. Also, I don’t think the council has been innovative enough to promote payments of bills,” said Mr Ndlovu.

He said the council should consider providing discounts for those who religiously pay their bills as they have kept the city afloat when others get free services.

“It’s unfortunate that those who are not paying bills continue to enjoy services at the expense of those who are paying. The city is running because of those few who are paying. At some point those who are paying, their payments should count for something. The council should consider door-to-door campaigns encouraging rate payments. As they are conducting door to door delivery of bill statements, they should be engaging residents encouraging them to pay bills and also trying to find out reasons why residents not paying their bills,” he said. – @nqotshili.