adminGWERU City Council has filed a notice to oppose an urgent High Court application by a group of Gweru residents who want the local authority to be barred from disconnecting water supplies.
The local authority filed the notice of opposition on 25 June this year through its legal representatives Chuma and Gurajena Legal Practitioners.
Although officials from Gweru City Council could not confirm the development last week, lawyers representing Gweru residents confirmed receipt of the notice.
The local authority’s spokesperson, Mr Tapiwa Marerwa, said he did not have details of the notice of opposition and would only be in a position to comment after checking with the legal department tomorrow.
Mr Reginald Chidawanyika of Chitere Chidawanyika Legal Practitioners told Sunday News last week that they were waiting to be given a date by the High Court when the case would be heard.
“They (Gweru City Council) have filed a notice of opposition and now we are waiting to be advised by the court on the date the matter shall appear,” he said.
Mr Chidawanyika said Gweru City Council in its opposition was arguing that residents should pay for water and those who fail to do so should be disconnected.
“Their argument is residents must not get water for free. However, they are silent on most of the issues that we raised, especially on the constitutionality of water disconnections. The notice was filed way out of time but we allowed it to be considered because we want the matter to be resolved in an open court,” said Mr Chidawanyika.
Gweru City Council was dragged to court in June this year by 25 residents, led by Mrs Lizzy Zvenyika, who sought to have council stopped from disconnecting water without a court order.
Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Martin Makonese issued a provisional order in favour of the residents, directing Gweru City Council to stop water disconnections and immediately restore water supply to disconnected residences.
The provisional order was issued on 5 June pending finalisation of the residents’ urgent chamber application.
In granting the provisional order, Justice Makonese, gave the local authority 24 hours to comply after being served with the order.
The local authority council complied and immediately reconnected water supply to properties that had been disconnected while at the same time it stopped water disconnections.
Section 77 of the country’s constitution guarantees water and food as basic human rights.
The move by residents to sue the local authority seemed to have incensed the city fathers who last month reacted by threatening to take legal action against defaulting rate payers.
The council spokesperson insinuated that the residents had, by taking the legal route, shown that they were not open to dialogue, a development he said left council with the option of suing defaulters.
“We are now considering a number of legal options that we can pursue to recover what we are owed. Soon we will start issuing defaulters with summons and hand them over to debt collectors. Some of the residents owe us monies that amount to the values of their houses and may lose their properties if we take that route,” he said.
Mr Marerwa said in as much as council understood that water was a human right, residents should also appreciate that there were a lot of costs that came with pumping of water, costs that could only be met if residents paid their bills.
Gweru City Council is reeling from massive debt and has reportedly accumulated an electricity bill of over $5 million reportedly over the past five years.
The local authority is owed about $24 million by residents and has also been battling to pay workers’ salaries on time for the past five years.
Council has recurrently clashed with workers over non-payment of salaries with the tension heightening in April this year when workers started staging daily demonstrations in protest.
The local authority is reportedly collecting about $1 million in revenue every month against a monthly salary bill of more than 1,2 million.
Two months ago councillors in Gweru seemed not to agree on the decision to disconnect water supply to defaulting residents, with some councillors led by Mayor Hamutendi Kombayi calling for engagement between council and ratepayers.
In January this year, Gweru residents staged protests against council’s decision to hand them over to debt collectors for outstanding bills.
In May, the residents also wrote a petition to council urging the local authority to concentrate on service delivery and desist from terrorising residents.
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Bongani Ndlovu