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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE Municipality has with effect from today started disconnecting residents and businesses who owe them a cumulative $196 million for water, rates, and service charges.
The local authority said in a public notice that it had resorted to drastic measures after calls on the debtors to service their bills or approach the municipality with realistic payment plans failed to yield results.
The cash-strapped council has for the past three months been failing to service its $65 million debt for bulk water supply by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) between January and June this year.
So far, the council has managed to pay $49 million between January and June and also proposed to pay at least $5 million to Zinwa weekly.
“We want to notify residents and stakeholders that we will be disconnecting water supplies with immediate effect on all residential and commercial properties whose accounts are in arrears,” said the Municipality.
“The municipality issued reminder letters to all properties with overdue accounts giving them seven-day notice from August 17 to August 26 to settle their arrears.
“All those who would have not paid by this given period will have their water disconnected as of August 27. We encourage property owners to avoid being inconvenienced by these necessary recovery measures by approaching our offices with an acceptable payment plan.”
Town clerk Mr Loud Ramakgapola said recently that as of June 30, they were owed $66 million in the high-density suburbs, $9,3 million in the medium density, $32,7 million in the low density, $17,6 million by commercial properties in the township, $46 million by businesses in the CBD and $24 million in the light and heavy industrial area zone.
Online Reporter