dyton mupawaenda
Talent Gore
HARARE City Council yesterday unveiled a US$548 million 2025 budget, promising to focus on improvement in service delivery at affordable rates.
The theme of the budget was, “ENHANCING SERVICE DELIVERY: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE GREEN FUTURE TOGETHER.’’
According to the budget, capital expenditure is US$137 335 million and recurrent expenditure is US$410 860 million to give a total of US$548 195 million.
Presenting the budget in Council Chambers, Harare City Council finance chairperson, Councillor Costa Mande, said the 2025 budget focuses on service delivery and was skewed towards water and sanitation underpinned by robust governance.
“The budget before you is a responsive budget that has paid attention to the issues raised by stakeholders through the consultative process,” he said.
“Key among the issues raised were the provision of water and sanitation, infrastructure development, social services delivery, public safety and security, protection of the environment and fairness in tariffs charged by the City of Harare.”
Clr Mande said the local authority was also facing problems from ratepayers who want the services delivered before they part with their money.
“The debtors position remains a challenge as residents say ‘deliver and we pay’ and we say ‘pay and we deliver,’” he said.
“To that effect, as we struggle with service delivery, the debtors position continues to rise and is now ZWG2 747 billion as of 30 September 2024 from the 31 August 2024 position of ZWG2 550 billion.”
Cllr Mande said the City was implementing measures to arrest the growing debtors book and improve on revenue collection.
Online Reporter