Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE Municipality says it is mobilizing resources to acquire more earth-moving equipment that is critical in addressing service delivery deficiencies in the country’s southern border town.
The Town Clerk, Mr Loud Ramakgapola said with the availability of more equipment they may be able to address challenges around the road network and attending to the perennial sewer woes.
He said although they had made provisions to acquire some of the key equipment in their annual budget, the Covid-19 pandemic had adversely affected their revenue inflows.
Mr Ramakgapola said most of the residents in the town were informally employed and were finding the going tough under the prevailing conditions and hence the failure to pay for their rates and services at the council.
“We are collecting only 20 percent of our targeted income from the ratepayers. This is presenting a challenging scenario considering that we have to offer quality services as an institution” he said.
“So, what we need is capacitation to procure our own equipment we may use to address issues around bad roads and the sewer. Outsourcing is relatively expensive considering our state of revenue collection”.
Mr Ramakgapola said before the Covid-19 pandemic, they would collect revenue from many businesses including 900 informal traders daily.
He said currently less than 500 informal traders were able to pay for their obligations.
He added that at Dulivhadzimu long-distance bus terminus they were now handling less than 10 buses due to limited cross-border travel activities.
“We used to collect revenue from at least 30 to 40 buses, but now the figure has reduced. Even the rate of payment from other ratepayers is at its lowest since we started having lockdowns last year.
“Although we have been getting support from other entities including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), we need to seriously invest in the requisite equipment to get things moving,” said Mr Ramakgapola.
He said challenges in the town had been compounded by the fact that they had limited industries.
The official said most of the economic activities in Beitbridge were cross border related, and the restrictions around that area were a great challenge for them to balance revenue collection and service delivery.
Mr Ramakgapola said they were hopeful that the revenue base will grow in a more opened-up economy.
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