BCC to hike rates, rentals

Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter

BULAWAYO residents will soon endure a rates and rental increment with a senior Bulawayo City Council official revealing that the city was going to have a supplementary budget in the second week of April.

BCC will be joining a long list of service providers that have over the past couple months hiked their tariffs. In an interview with Sunday News, the local authority’s acting town clerk, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou said while their 2019 budget had recently been approved by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, recent developments in the country’s economic sector had necessitated that they come up with a supplementary budget.

She said while she could not state the level of increment, it would be unavoidable noting that they also had to pay in order to get services of which the current budget was not enough for them to keep the local authority functioning.

“You know we crafted our budget in September and it was before the monetary policies in October and the recent one that devalued the RTGS dollar. So for us there is need to come up with contingency measures if we are to continue, fuel prices have increased, of which we use a lot of fuel as a municipality to provide services.

“So, yes, we are going to have a supplementary budget but we will consult residents on the level of services they want us to provide because the level of service is determined by level of payments made. I won’t pre-empt but yes, it is obvious residents will get a rates and rental increment but what we can’t say at the moment is at what magnitude because if you look at what prices were in September and today you will know that everything has gone up,” said Mrs Zhou.

She however, emphasised that the new rates and rentals won’t be forced on residents and businesses but as a local authority they will do all they can to consult and ensure that the new tariffs will be agreeable by all stakeholders in the city.

“Council’s budget making is a process and we always include residents. In February we held a financial review meeting to try conscientise our residents on our financial standing and the need to have a supplementary budget. Once again we will have such a consultation as we draw up the supplementary budget. This process will start in the second week of April, we may not go to every ward but we engage all groupings and stakeholders. What I have to emphasise is the need for us to finish the process in the fastest time possible,” said the acting town clerk.

In the financial review emergency meeting, the city’s financial director Mr Kimpton Ndimande revealed that the local authority was in the red in terms of financial standing noting that the situation had negative effects on service delivery.

Mr Ndimande told residents and other stakeholders at the meeting that council was facing a myriad of challenges which were mainly a result of failure by residents to settle their bills, late approval of council budget, hyper-inflation and foreign currency demands by suppliers.