Vusumuzi DubeVusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
BULAWAYO residents have taken a swipe at the city council’s tariffs, saying it now costs more to flush a toilet than buying a loaf of bread.
Residents in the city over the past week have been receiving huge bills with the local authority attributing that to the indexing of bills in foreign currency where residents can pay using the local currency at the interbank rate as at the time of billing.
In a statement, presented at the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday afternoon, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) secretary for administration, Mr Thembelani Dube said residents were now being forced to pay for more than they could afford.
“It now costs more to flush your toilet in Bulawayo than it does to buy a loaf of bread. Water and sewer are largely the cash cows for BCC but sadly there hasn’t been any meaningful investment towards these.
“In the context of rising rates, it is clear that residents are going to be forced to pay more than they can afford which violates economic principles which recommends that utility bills should not cost more than six percent of one’s earnings for them to be considered affordable,” said Mr Dube.
He further revealed that some residents were getting bills of as much as ZWL400 000, which were largely through estimates as their meters were not being inspected by council personnel.
“These astronomical charges have been used as a scapegoat by Bulawayo City Council to attach residents’ properties. Despite the high bills, the services provided by BCC fail to meet the quality requirements.
“No business can succeed in a failing environment. Bulawayo City Council is a multimillion-dollar business and cannot succeed in an environment where it willy-nilly hikes rates without consultation and implements policies that make it difficult for residents to survive. BCC has been wantonly hiking rates and tariffs but is failing to provide the matching services that these rates are supposed to fund,” said Mr Dube.
The residents’ representative further took a swipe at the city’s councillors who he said have strategically positioned themselves to benefit from the decisions taken by council management.
“A lot of councillors now own stands and properties around the city and have actually failed to stand up to management. The current rates fall outside what the majority of residents earn or are able to generate from informal trading.
“It is public knowledge that there are no functional industries in Bulawayo and most of the residents were commissioned into street and market vending when these industries collapsed. Rates are now indexed in USD and no consultation was done but as is becoming the norm, the US dollar figures for different wards were unilaterally imposed upon the poor residents of the City, despite them being key stakeholders,” said Mr Dube.
Last week council corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the bills may be viewed as huge, but council has not increased tariffs in US dollars.
“Council has not increased service charges but has aligned the ZWL charges to their US dollar equivalent at the time of budgeting using the interbank rate.
This action was taken to avert service delivery collapse in the city.
ZWL costs of providing services have increased due to exchange rate movements. Residents and stakeholders who have queries are free to approach any Council Revenue office for explanations and the breakdown of their bills.
The council billing system is robust,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Online Reporter