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Preliminary investigations into the alleged abuse of monopoly in local authorities such as Harare and Bulawayo started towards the end of 2010 amid concerns raised by ratepayers that the rates were not affordable.
In an interview, Competition and Tariff Commission assistant director Mr Benjamin Chinhengo said the report was sent to the lawyers for legal opinion.
“We have compiled a report on our views regarding the alleged abuse of monopoly by local authorities.
“The lawyers are expected to give legal opinion because there are areas that as the CTC feel local authorities conducted business in line with the Urban Councils Act,” he said.
He said once legal opinion was established the commission would come up with a determination at its board meeting set for mid next month.
Contacted for comment, Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura) chairman Mr Winos Dube said his association was aware of the CTC investigations but no feedback had been received with regards to the investigations on Bulawayo City Council (BCC).
“It’s coming to me as news that the commission has compiled a report on its view on the alleged abuse of monopoly by local authorities. As Bura we are very much aware of the commission but when it comes to feedback of that nature we are not told. For example, when the commission passed a ruling on Zesa we got to learn about it through the media,” he said.
He said Bura was not satisfied because Zesa was yet to fully comply with the commission’s determination.
In 2010, the commission undertook investigations into abuse of monopoly by Zesa and ruled that the power utility should credit consumers with load limiters 43 percent of the tariffs for the period 1 February to 30 November 2009 as they only had electricity 57 percent of the time due to load shedding.
Mr Dube said since 2009 Bura had been vocal about the unaffordability of tariffs from service providers because ratepayers did not have money due to the challenges posed by high unemployment as well as the adoption of a multi-currency system in the economy.
Zimbabwe adopted a multi-currency regime in order to address the challenges of economic meltdown the country went through for close to a decade.
Mr Dube said Bura was disheartened following reports that Bulawayo City Council recently embarked on a debt recovery system by attaching ratepayers’ property to force them to settle outstanding bills.
“We are concerned that currently ratepayers are experiencing scenarios where their property is being attached by the local authority over outstanding bills. We need to revisit policies governing the local authorities,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association chairman Mr Reason Ngwenya were futile as his mobile number was not reachable.
Government through an Act of Parliament set up the CTC in 2009 to study trends towards increased economic concentration with a view to investigating monopolistic situations where they run parallel to public interest.
The Competition Act seeks to encourage and promote competition in all sectors of the economy, reducing barriers of entry to any sector of the economy or to any form of economic activity as well as fostering investigations, discouraging and preventing restrictive practices.
Online Reporter