City tweaks business model

Talent Gore

THE City of Harare is tweaking its business model to ensure effective revenue collection.

Council also wants to ensure that no one uses its amenities for free.

Speaking in a feedback meeting held at the Mabelreign District Office, Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, said the city’s revenue base is continuously dwindling because many people and organisations are using its amenities.

Harare services an estimated 4.5 million people during day time, with the majority coming from satellite towns such as Marondera, Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Norton and Bindura.

“These people come to town every day, use our roads, our facilities and some of them even litter our environment, yet we do not get a single cent from them,” he said.

“We are stuck in a dangerous model where we continue to punish those that are already paying rates.

“We need to remodel this and see how we can collect revenue from people living in Caledonia and Whitecliffe because those that pay rates are increasingly shrinking.

“This is how the idea of e-tolling in cities like Johannesburg came into being.

“They wanted to make sure that everyone who uses their facilities can at least pay something to the local authority.”

He said council is not getting anything meaningful from the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA) to help in repairing or constructing new roads.

“My social media platforms are inundated with messages from residents asking why we are unable to complete a 200-metre stretch of road or a simple roundabout,” Mayor Mafume said.

“We need to get licensing fees back. We have over 800 000 vehicles in the city and if we get at least US$10 per month from each vehicle, we could do business with any financial institution in the city to bankroll roads projects.

“That would be easy business and no financial institution would resist that.”

Mayor Mafume said the current water challenges being experienced were as a result of over reliance on the same suppliers of water treatment chemicals, and the situation was unsustainable.

“We have a target to produce 450 megalitres of water per day by year end, and we are currently producing 350 megalitres,” he said.

“We have worked well with the parent Ministry and the provincial office to save the situation and have secured a month’s supply of the chemicals.”

He was, however, quick to add that the solution to water treatment must be locally manufactured chemicals.

“We need to be in control of water treatment chemicals, and we have contracted a contractor to work on the carbon dioxide plant so that we have a permanent solution,” he                                                                              said.