adminIn an interview on Friday, Clr Tobaiwa said the council was praying for the resumption of operations at the giant Redcliff-based steel company for it to recover its money.
“Zisco water debt puts us in a bad financial position because we pump treated water to the steel company daily without recovering our costs, Zisco, in turn, gives Redcliff Municipality water for the town’s residents. We cannot do much about recovering our money for as long as NewZim Steel is not operational. Also, our parent ministry, (that of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development) instructed us not to shut water supplies to Zisco until such a time when the steel company starts operating. We hope operations resume pretty soon for us to get our dues,” he said.
Kwekwe City Council once threatened to stop pumping water to Zisco as a way of pushing for the recovery of its money.
However, Government intervened and instructed the city council to wait for the ailing giant steel company to commence operations as NewZim Steel before taking such drastic measures.
Redcliff Town has no water treatment plant of its own and has since the town’s inception been relying on Kwekwe for its water.
Meanwhile, the City of Kwekwe has scrapped interests on rates and water account for all defaulting residents until further notice, as a way of encouraging defaulters to service their accounts.
Clr Tobaiwa said the move was precipitated by the economic situation which has seen some big companies in the city closing while others operated at half-mast.
“We removed interest on all accounts as a way of encouraging our residents to pay. As council, we also realised that some companies were closing while others like Zimasco were making their workers report for duty for only two weeks per month resulting in the workers being paid half salaries. Charging interest on outstanding bills was not helping much because the amounts kept increasing without the owners servicing their accounts,” he said.
Clr Tobaiwa said residents, especially senior citizens mostly in the old suburb of Amaveni, were struggling to make ends meet.
He said it was asking for too much to expect senior citizens who survived mainly on selling firewood, to be able to regularly service their water and rates accounts.
Some residents misread the removal of interest as a reduction of tariffs and prematurely hipped praise on the city fathers.
“We realised that NewZim Steel owes us $9 million which they are yet to settle yet we were closing water for our old residents who owe us much less compared to NewZim Steel. Our old residents depend on selling firewood but we were disconnecting their water, which I think is a bit unfair.
“It is, however, not true that we reduced tariffs. We only removed interests on all accounts to encourage residents to pay. We also expect them to pay something towards their old bills whenever they service their current bills,” said Clr Tobaiwa.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter