adminDorcas Jiri Herald Reporter
Harare City Council says it will close illegal, unlicensed and defaulting shop operators as it seeks to plug revenue losses due to non-renewal of licences.
City spokesman Michael Chideme yesterday said council had started a crackdown to shut down business premises for operators who had failed to meet the December 31, 2014 deadline to renew their licences. “We are not allowing businesses to operate without paying the necessary licences to council,” he said.
“We have over 7 000 businesses in the city and we expect them to pay up to be able to do business.
“Our teams are moving around checking on compliance and we are embarking on a serious exercise to close down all businesses without licences.”
The crackdown was being enforced by teams comprising environment inspectors, health officers, municipality police officers and the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
Chideme urged retailers to comply or have their operations shut down.
“We are happy to note that some operators have responded accordingly and others are still coming in,” he said.
“Delays and failure by business to pay for their shop licences on time will adversely affect service delivery.”
Shop licences are being paid at Rowan Martin and all district offices.
Council is losing potential revenue running into millions of dollars per annum as business operators in the Greater Harare area fail to pay for licences.
Last year, the council failed to meet its annual revenue target of US$276 million. It collected US$138 million between January and October last year.
The city was forced to revise down its target to US$151 million resulting in the council facing a myriad of service delivery challenges.
Online Reporter