Government okays Kwekwe $26,9million budget

Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has approved Kwekwe City Council’s $26,9 million budget for 2019, which has water and sewer tariff increases.

The tariff increases saw the budget swelling from $26,3 million in 2018 to the current $26,9 million, which Government has given the nod.

Kwekwe Mayor Councillor Angeline Kasipo confirmed that the budget has been approved by Government although there were some minor ‘adjustments.’

“Government approved our budget of $26,9 million and we are now moving to the next stage. There are, however, some minor adjustments here and there that will be done before the budget is taken before council for adoption,” she said.

In a recent full council meeting, Clr Kasipo said the local authority would stick to the current figures and if the need arises, a supplementary budget would be proposed.

“As of now we are going to work with the figures as approved by Government, but given the current economic situation, we aren’t ruling out the possibility of coming up with a supplementary budget,” she said.

Meanwhile, residents have castigated the local authority for side-lining them in the budget processes.

Kwekwe Residents and Ratepayers Association secretary general, Mr Alex Homela, said council did not include the views of residents when coming up with tariff reviews and accused it of refusing to surrender the document for scrutiny by residents as per requirement.

“We feel council are doing their own thing that does not involve residents as required. We asked for the document before it was taken up for approval but they told us we had no right to access the document,” said Mr Homela.

“We are going to write to the Minister of Local Government (July Moyo) and Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister, (Larry Mavima) for their intervention because surely there is nothing without involving us,” said Mr Homela.