Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
Residents groups have rejected the Harare City Council’s proposed 2026 budget, describing it as unreasonable, unjustified and likely to impose steep rate increases on ratepayers.
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director, Mr Precious Shumba, said the local authority had once again failed to take residents’ concerns into account, despite repeated calls for transparency and affordability in the budgeting process.
“The City of Harare has failed to listen to the concerns of ratepayers and now resorts to throwing figures around to cover the perceived funding gap created after the Government’s ease-of-doing-business reforms, which directed local authorities to cut business licence fees among other charges,” he said.
Mr Shumba urged residents to formally submit their objections before December 01, 2025, deadline, saying collective action was necessary to compel the council to revise the budget to levels acceptable to the majority.
“We are urging residents to submit their objections so that we force the council to adjust their budget to levels acceptable to the majority of residents,” he added.
Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations Residents Trust (ZNOART) national chairperson, Mr Shalvar Chikomba, also criticised the proposed budget, particularly the increases in water tariffs, property taxes and waste management charges, which he described as “inhumane” and out of touch with residents’ economic realities.
“We urge them to go back to the figures residents proposed during budget consultations. If I remember correctly, we recommended that tariffs be reduced or kept at the 2025 levels,” he said.
Mr Chikomba added that the council should prioritise service delivery instead of burdening residents with excessive costs.
“If they continue forgetting their mandate, we will have no option but to call on Government, through President Mnangagwa, to intervene and stop these outrageous budgets that some local authorities are advancing,” he said.
Council has proposed steep water tariff increases of up to 61 percent for high – density suburbs and a massive 188 percent for low-density areas in its US$690 million 2026 budget, a move city authorities say is meant to align charges with the true cost of producing and distributing water.
Under the proposed new structure, residents in high-density areas who currently pay US$1.24 per cubic metre for the first five cubic metres would pay US$2,00, a 61 percent increase.
In low-density suburbs, the rate for the same amount of water would rise from US$1.70 to US$4.90 per cubic metre, representing a 188 percent hike.
City authorities are also proposing a steep hike in burial and cemetery fees starting next year – with some charges rising by more than 40 percent.
Under the draft 2026 cemetery tariffs, now open for public inspection, adult burial fees at Warren Hills Cemetery are set to rise from US$275 to US$400 for residents, while non-resident burials will increase from US$300 to US$450.
For non-Zimbabweans, the cost will jump from US$395 to US$590, and exhumations will rise from US$350 to US$525.
Similar increases have been proposed across other cemeteries, with Granville A burials going up from US$225 to US$330, Mabvuku from US$150 to US$225, and memorial erection fees from US$100 to US$150.
The tariff adjustments are part of the city’s proposed 2026 budget, expected to take effect on January 1, 2026, if approved by the Ministry of Local Government.
