Town council loses property over debt

The attached property, according to sources, includes two vehicles for management staff, two service trucks and furniture from all the offices. The sources within the local authority said there has not been any meaningful business at Shurugwi Town Council since the property was attached last Thursday.

“The offices are empty and employees, including senior management officials, are not even reporting for duty because there is nothing to do with all the furniture and office computers having been attached,” said the source.

The source said there was urgent need to address the issue as soon as possible.

“The attaching of property is likely to affect council business in the long run because some of the attached computers had very important information that includes the employee data base,” said the source.

Shurugwi Town Council chairman Councillor Bulle Madzitire confirmed the development.

Clr Madzitire accused Zinwa officials of “ambushing” the council.

“What the Zinwa officials did was highly unprofessional because we have been engaging them and communicating our position as council. We have acknowledged our debt and only last week, we deposited about $4 000 into the Zinwa account towards payment of the outstanding amount but we were surprised when they ambushed us and attached council property,” he said.

Clr Madzitire said the move had grounded council business which he said was already struggling owing to cash flow constraints.

“Surely with the present situation, it’s very difficult to run the council given the fact that residents are not servicing their bills despite the fact that we have been able to pump water in every house using the limited resources and funds we have,” he said.

Clr Madzitire said local authorities should be allowed to disconnect consumers who were not paying their bills so as to recover money owed.

“The problem with our Minister of Water Resources Management Mr (Samuel Sipepa) Nkomo is that he is not in touch with what is happening in the cities and towns hence his directive that we should not disconnect residents for not servicing their bills. Some parastatals like the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority are allowed to disconnect residents who don’t pay for electricity but as local authorities, we are not allowed to do the same. There is something wrong with our minister,” fumed Clr Madzitire.