Chronicle Editor
Sukoluhle Ndlovu, Midlands Correspondent
GWERU City Council is owed more than $40 million by informal traders in unpaid rates, a development that has affected the local authority in carrying out its service delivery mandate, an official has said.
Speaking during a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of workspaces for informal traders in Mtapa suburb in Gweru on Thursday, acting Town Clerk Mrs Unity Jaji said the development has negatively affected council revenue.
“The city of Gweru is facing a plethora of challenges, among them is paying of rent by traders. This failure to pay rentals paralyses our operations to expand market stalls. As it stands, the debt of informal traders is about $ 4 million,” she said.
She appealed to informal traders to fulfill their obligation of paying rates to ease financial pressure on the local authority. Mrs Jaji said the city was in the process of allocating registered informal traders proper vending stalls as they were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Council is obliged to allocate trading space to legal traders who were displaced during the national lockdown. There will be proper allocation of bays characterised by no corruption, no space barons and no disruption of processes.
We will soon commission poverty alleviation projects which are currently under construction at Kudzanayi terminus, Ivene rank and Kombayi wholesale market which will house a number of traders. As a local authority, we still continue to call upon the traders to be cooperative so that our poverty alleviation projects are successful,” she added.
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