admin
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is skeptical towards engaging potential investors on development projects due to the prevailing economic environment characterized by distortion in financial markets.
This comes amid revelations that the local authority recently had to put on hold a $500 000 loan facility from a local bank which was meant for the connection of water and sewer reticulation at Cowdray Park Hlalani Kuhle.
These revelations were made by the city’s town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube during a policy dialogue meeting between residents’ association leaders and the Bulawayo City Council that was jointly organised by Bulawayo Progressive Residents Associations and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
The policy dialogue meeting which was meant to enhance interaction between residents and the residents was also attended by the mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, council committee chairpersons and senior council officials to dialogue on the service delivery challenges facing Bulawayo and to develop a common vision for the future.
Mr Dube said as a local authority the prevailing economic development were grossly affecting them as most of their suppliers were now demanding payments in foreign currency with most not accepting bank transfers which he said was making it difficult for them embark on development projects.
“The new phenomenon prevailing now is that people are no longer accepting swipe and bond payments, to a certain extent, but they are taking foreign currency and for some reason EcoCash payments. Most businesses are therefore now taking a back sit, in terms of trading.
“On the other hand most people who are owing council are now offloading these monies in RTGS and bonds, which is the biggest problem, because we can get this money but we may not be able to buy with it because some of our goods and services we require for service delivery are in foreign currency hence it’s a big crisis for us. For the projects which are running we cannot buy the required material cause of their demands, in the few events that we get a supplier who accepts RTGS payments, the prices are out of this world,” said the town clerk.
He said one major project which they were now stuck and could not make key decisions was the redevelopment of Makokoba suburb which he had recently identified as one key project as the push towards modernizing the city.
“We also have the slum we inherited in Cowdray Park, where residents moved into houses without sewer or water reticulation, to solve the problems in the suburb, residents were paying $15 per month for the connection of water and sewer, which we were ring fencing.
“We also had recently got a loan of $500 000 from a local bank, which were wanted to add on what had been paid by residents to ensure that we complete connecting sewer and water in the suburb in the next three to five years but we now cannot accept that loan because what will we do with it when our suppliers are demanding foreign currency,” said the town clerk.
Turning to water treatment chemicals, which require foreign currency when purchasing, the town clerk said they remained hopeful that the government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) would help them access the foreign currency so that this does not affect their water delivery capacity.
“The purchase of water chemicals might be affected in the future but we remain hopeful because the government set the issue of water treatment as one of the priority areas for foreign currency provision.
“What the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is saying now is that instead of queuing at the RBZ we should go to our bankers and the allocations will be done from there, we are however not yet sure how this will work but I am sure they will always prioritise water,” said Mr Dube.
derick.khumalo