adminClr Tobaiwa said his council would engage their parent ministry, that of Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, in a bid to recover their money from the steel manufacturing company.
Kwekwe City pumps treated water to Zisco which in turn pumps to Redcliff Town.
“We want to engage the Government through our parent Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development over the $8 million outstanding water bills that Zisco owes us. We are still giving them treated water but they are not servicing their debt. When we once engaged them, we came up with a payment plan but it is not being adhered to. They pay us only $3 000 out of $8 million and this is not much,” he said.
Clr Tobaiwa said his council was now facing challenges in servicing its own debts since its own debtors were not paying their debts.
He said his council owed ZETDC close to $2 million in outstanding power bills and a further $400 000 to Zinwa.
“We are paying ZETDC bit by bit and we hope we will continue paying them something regularly. There is also the water utility debt that worries us. We owe the water utility $400 000 in water bills and only a fortnight ago, the Zinwa officials were threatening to disconnect our water.
“They told us that the bill was too much. We have a payment plan but at times we fail to service our Zinwa and other debts due to lack of funds. It is especially so during monthends as we have salaries to pay to our workers. This is why we are thinking of engaging the ministry to help us recover our money from Zisco,” said Clr Tobaiwa.
The mayor of Kwekwe said the city council was also facing difficulties in sourcing water treatment chemicals for two urban settlements, Kwekwe and Redcliff.
He said Kwekwe City Council was buying its own chemicals following the withdrawal of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
“It has become increasingly difficult to sustain the programme of sourcing water treatment chemicals for two towns. In the past we would get the chemicals for free from Unicef, but they stopped doing so in March. This time we are paying cash for the chemicals. It is a heavy burden to us when Redcliff is not paying anything,” he said.
Clr Tobaiwa, however, said Kwekwe City Council would continue to give Redcliff treated water despite Zisco’s failure to service its huge water debt.
He said they would only stop pumping water to Zisco (and Redcliff) if they run out of water treatment chemicals.
“We cannot pump raw water to consumers as this is not recommended, besides being dangerous. Raw water is used for farming activities and farmers at times pump chemicals into our dams,” said Clr Tobaiwa.
Kwekwe City Council and other organisations owed money by Ziscosteel were hoping to recover their funds once the new management at NewZim Steel took over. However, there have been countless delays in the resumption of work at the once mighty Zisco plant, raising fears that the new project could suffer a stillbirth.
Online Reporter