GCC on expansion drive

Sukoluhle Ndlovu Midlands Correspondent
Gweru City Council has made various achievements in the past year, one of which is partnering hotel and leisure group African Sun in the construction of a world class Holiday Inn Hotel in the city, acting finance director Mr Owen Masimba has said.

Presenting his first quarter budget review statement, Mr Masimba said other achievements were the reduction in the city’s debtor bill by more than $1 million, purchasing of three refuse trucks and rehabilitating 35 km of road as well as Ascot stadium.

“As a city we made several achievements in the past year aimed at achieving our vision of being a sustainable city of choice by 2030. Some of the achievements include road rehabilitation, reducing our debt and we have leased land for construction of holiday inn express hotel,” he said.

Mr Masimba said the initiative was meant to reduce hotel accommodation challenges that are sometimes experience in the city.

“We noticed that at people visiting the city face accommodation problems, and some end up travelling to Kwekwe because all hotels and lodges will be fully booked,” he said. Mr Masimba said the project was now on land lease stage.

“The land has been identified and now we are on the land leasing stage. We hope that the stage will be completed soon so that the construction of the hotel begins as soon as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, the local authority which is owed more than $57 million has managed to recover over a $1 million owed by rate payers.

“We managed to recover $1 064 140 from both residents and companies. We also managed to reduce the bill from over $58 million to just above $57 million. We continue to encourage companies and residents to pay their bills religiously so that service delivery is not interrupted,” he said.

He said the council managed to recover some of the money its owed after introducing raft measures including offering payment plans to rate payers.

“We have been on a massive drive encouraging rate payers to pay their bills always and on time. We also offered residents and companies payment plans that will enable them to clear their debts bit by bit,” he said.