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The proposed Harare City Council budget for 2025 includes levies for street lighting and emergency services, which vendors oppose.
The emergency services levy is ostensibly being introduced to buy new ambulances, as the City has only four functional ones, against the required 32.
In a statement, Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) chairperson Mr Samuel Wadzai said the budget contains many ambitious targets, but of concern is the proposed emergency services and street lighting levies.
“There can be no doubt that emergency services are critical to the well-being of residents in the capital.
“However, what is problematic in our view is the ready recourse to taxing residents battling to survive the already existing economic hardships,” he said.
“It is our view that the city can do more to meet the health, education, water and sanitation needs of its residents should it choose to implement sound public finance management principles.”
It bordered on criminality, he said, that the city continues to operate without a proper billing system, and a secure asset register of its properties, meaning that income was lost and rents and fees were not collected.
“You do not need to take our word for it, these are just some of the revelations from the ongoing Commission of Inquiry into the governance of Harare City Council, he said. — Herald Reporter
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