Residents threaten to sue council over disconnections

disconnects them over unpaid water bills.
The city has been running Press advertisements advising residents to pay up or lose their water.
“City of Harare wishes to remind all consumers in high density suburbs who made payment plans to visit their nearest payment offices to fulfill their commitment.
“Failure to do so will result in water disconnections on all outstanding accounts,” reads part of the advert.
This has riled residents who feel short-changed by council’s policy on water payments and disconne- ctions.
Harare Residents Trust co-ordinator Mr Precious Shumba yesterday said legal options were available to stop the water cuts.
Mr Shumba said residents could not be expected to know their water charges when council was sending composite bills.
The composite bills cover all services such as refuse collection and rates.
“How does one know that he or she has paid for water? There should be a separate water bill.
“It is also against international statutes to deny people water. Water is not a luxury.
“It is a basic necessity. It is time the city fathers realise that water is life,” he said.
Mr Shumba said the city should stop using water as a tool to enforce payments for other services that are not delivered.
“We will take them to court. On this one we will fight them tooth and nail.
“We will take legal action to protect the interests of residents,” he said.
City spokesman Mr Leslie Gwindi admitted that residents had genuine complaints with regards to late disbursement of bills and failure to update payments.
“We are cognisant of our problems. We are aware that for the past two months we were way behind in our bills submissions,” he said.
Mr Gwindi said revenue officers had been urged to treat each case on merit.
“We have some IT challenges in terms of updating and upgrading our systems.
“Complaints exist.
“We are doing all we can to service our residents and ratepayers,” he said.
However, Mr Gwindi did not say why the city had flighted the advert when it was aware of the challenges.
Some paid up residents have in the past been disconnected while others have reportedly paid bribes to stop disconnections.
Mr Munyaradzi Pasipamire of Highfield said his December payments did not reflect on his current bill sent in February.
“They say I still owe them US$180, but as far as I am concerned I cleared that amount a long time ago in December,” he said.
Last month scores of rate payers besieged Town House demanding a down ward review of water, rates and refuse charges.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda is on record as saying water was a human rights issue and under normal circumstances, it was improper to disconnect residents.
He said disconnecting residents was a desperate act to compel them to settle their bills.