adminSenior Reporter
BEITBRIDGE Town Council and Tsholotsho Rural District Council have written off debts owed by residents in line with a Government directive. Beitbridge Town Council wrote off debts amounting to $7 million while Tsholotsho RDC was owed $2,1 million by individual ratepayers.
In an interview yesterday, Beitbridge town secretary Dr Sipho Singo said the local authority has written off residents’ debts accumulated during the past four years as directed by the Government.
“Beitbridge Town Council has complied and written off $7 million it was owed by residents in line with the Government directive. We were actually one of the first councils to implement that policy and we made a resolution as commissioners running the council to scrap the bills for individual ratepayers,” he said.
Dr Singo urged the business community to settle their debts as they were not covered by the directive.
“We continue to encourage businesses to settle their debts so that we are able to continue providing the required services as well as develop our town,” he said.
In Tsholotsho, the District Administrator, Ms Nosizi Dube, who is also the commissioner for Tsholotsho RDC, said the bills which had been written off included rentals, unit tax, development levy, licences and refuse charges for individual ratepayers.
“We have complied with the Government directive to cancel all bills for individual ratepayers amounting to $2,1 million. We will soon send bills indicating the new position.”
Meanwhile, Beitbridge Town Council will soon avail 4 000 residential stands in a move that is set to ease the prevailing accommodation crisis in the border town.
Dr Singo said the stands would be serviced under the local authority’s three phase layout plan.
He said the land has since been surveyed and they were now waiting for the approval of the layout plan by the Department of Physical Planning in the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.
“We intend to allocate at least 4 000 residential stands this year of which 2 500 would be released by the end of this month. We have since done the surveys and we are now waiting for the Department of Physical Planning in the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development to finalise the technicalities.
“The objective is to reduce the housing backlog and completely address the accommodation problems in Beitbridge within the next five years. We expect 4 000 stands to be ready by the end of the year,” he said.
The town’s housing backlog stands at 7 000.
Last year, the local authority allocated 3 550 stands, most of which were in the high density area.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo