adminBULILIMA Rural District Council will soon take legal action against defaulting ratepayers as a means of boosting its revenue collection which has been poor.
Speaking during a full council meeting on Tuesday, Bulilima Rural District Council chief executive officer, Mr John Brown Ncube, said the local authority would have to take its debtors to court.
He also said they were planning to conduct visits to shops in the district and collect outstanding balances. The local authority recently conducted visits where unlicensed shops were being shut down.
“We desperately need this money which we are owed by people as we have a number of projects that need to be completed. There are a number of schools and clinics which are long overdue just because of unpaid rates.
“If need be we will have to take some of these defaulters to court maybe that way they will pay their rates,” said Mr Ncube.
He said the local authority had recorded poor cashflow during the period extending from April to July which was compromising service delivery.
“We have recorded poor payments across various spectrums. Econet has only paid $4 450 and they have an outstanding balance of $16 150 for their yearly subscriptions. Transmedia owes us $13 000 and they are refusing to pay. We have managed to collect $63 005 from shops out of the expected $114 351.
“There is a current exercise where we are collecting revenue from schools and to date only 25 have paid. We are also facing challenges in collecting rentals from churches and places like Madlambuzi, Ndiweni and Figtree. Figtree area is the worst because we have collected $3 836 out of an expected $50 580,” he said.
Mr Ncube said the local authority was still facing difficulties with farmers as they were resisting paying their unit tax. He said $26 810,54 had been paid so far out of an expected $47 951,28. He said the bulk of the money was owed by A1 resettlement farmers and a meeting with commercial farmers would be scheduled to address the issue.
He said the local authority would consider litigation as they had done with service providers like NRZ, Zinwa and Zesa.
He said five projects which were running in the district would be completed this year. These comprise two clinics and three schools.
“Tokwana Clinic is almost complete. The roofing, plastering and floor has been done and we expect to open it in October or November. Bambadzi Clinic is at an advanced stage now. It is partially roofed and the outstanding works are at an advanced stage but it will be completed this year.
“The other projects which comprise one primary and two secondary schools which are namely Mzwanyana, Ntambana and Himago should be able to enrol pupils in January next year,” he said.
Online Reporter