adminOliver Kazunga Senior Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is still negotiating with Zesa to offset part of its $47 million debt to council by cancelling the $37 million the local authority owes the electricity supplier.If the two institutions agree on the arrangement, they would inform the government about the deal.
The Mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo, would not be drawn yesterday into revealing when the negotiations would be completed.
“We’re still talking to Zesa on that matter (debt offsetting) but I can’t say what stage we’re at. But I can actually say quite some work has been done on the debt proposal negotiations.
“Once we agree on the arrangement we’ll have to consult government to say this is what we have agreed,” he said.
In July, BCC said it had already set up a technical taskforce to engage Zesa on the proposal to offset debts that the two utilities owe each other.
If the move is successful, it would see Zesa owing BCC $10 million while the local authority would have cleared its debt.
“This debt proposal is actually a national thing that other local authorities such Harare City Council and rural district councils are also pursuing. We think if we can do that we’ll be able to rationalise our budgets so that we have meaningful budgets,” said Cllr Moyo.
At the moment, he said BCC was not collecting any revenue from Zesa.
Zesa spokesperson Fullard Gwasira could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print yesterday.
Bulawayo United Residents’ Association has commended the arrangement, saying if successful it would go a long way in normalising relations between Zesa and BCC.
Early last year, Zesa switched off city council buildings, the City Hall, Revenue Hall and the Tower Block among others, paralysing the cash-strapped local authority that resorted to buying generators as it could not raise the $21 million needed at the time.
Revenue Hall, Tower Block and City Hall are still powered by generators.
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