Business cries foul over high Bulawayo City Council rates…council-industry talks fail to resolve tariff dispute

SOME industries in Bulawayo are struggling and reducing operating hours or relocating to other cities due to high rates and service charges imposed by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC).

Last year, they accused BCC of using an incorrect formula indexing the 2022 and 2023 tariffs to the United States dollar that resulted in exorbitant tariffs.

Numerous meetings and discussions with the council and Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube, failed to yield positive results.

The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works organised a meeting between the BCC and captains of industry last week, which ended in another impasse.

The ministry’s advocacy and communications director, Mr Gabriel Masvora, suggested that the business community should be part of the city’s budget consultative committee.

“Going forward, the business community shall have representatives in the city’s budget committee because it was noted that like in most local authorities, people tend to ignore these consultative meetings, and when those who attend make resolutions, the absentees cry foul,” he said.

Mr Masvora said once the two parties agree to reduce tariffs, they formally notify the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works for endorsement.

Following last week’s meeting, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Matabeleland region vice-president, Mr Clive Willows, wrote to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works expressing the business community’s fears of total collapse of city industries.

The letter was copied to the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Martin Rushwaya, Minister Ncube, and Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor David Coltart.

Mr Willows said captains of industry and residents’ associations noted a dramatic increase in BCC’s service charges in July 2022, coinciding with the implementation of Statutory Instrument (SI) 118A of 2022, which provided that economic actors should index prices of goods and services to the United States dollar-based pricing.

The SI said economic actors should index prices of goods and services to the United States dollar-based pricing and convert prices to local currency at the bank rate on the date of payment.

However, the CZI said that BCC used the “façade” of keeping the 2022 budget static in 2023 and 2024 to conceal a miscalculation.

Mr Willows stated that some industries are facing viability challenges, and as a survival strategy, they have cut down on labour costs by operating on a reduced number of hours monthly.

“The position adopted by council management is that the 2022 budget was approved and this same budget has been kept static in 2023 and 2024. This has been used as a façade to conceal the miscalculation when the 2022 budget was reduced to effective charges and tariffs which are used to bill residents and businesses,” stated Mr Willows.

“The assertion that the 2022 budget has been kept static in 2023 and 2024 has been used by council management to mask management errors made on implementing SI 118A of 2022.”

He said some companies have moved the production of some products to other cities and are distributing them to Bulawayo, as calls by stakeholders for BCC to review tariffs have been ignored, with BCC management allegedly refusing to consider objections in terms of the Urban Councils Act.

“When quizzed why the budget was submitted to the minister when stakeholders were engaging management, it was stated that stakeholders had not objected to the proposed budget and queries could no longer be entertained,” he said.

“The horse had bolted. It is with this experience that members of CZI and Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce lawfully lodged objections to the city budget.”

He argued that the Tuesday meeting between BCC and stakeholders failed to resolve the complaints, with stakeholders not allowed to make a formal presentation. According to Mr Willows, the excessive charges’ urgent solution is necessary, given the state of the economy and the survival of businesses.

“While the meeting was meant to address concerns, council management opted to educate the meeting of its mandate. The presentation did not delve into issues of concern and was reduced to a public relations exercise,” he said.