By Correspondent
Marondera Municipality is now owed over ZiG60 million by various debtors resulting in crippled service delivery.
Council Finance Committee Chairperson Cllr Cephas Mazambani confirmed the development.
“Residents, business community, and corporates owes the council ZiG 60 487 517.
“We are appealing to our rate payers to pay their bills religiously so that we improve our service delivery,” he said.
“To run our day to day business we need money.
“For instance we need to provide water, refuse collection among others and we only do that when our clients pay their bills religiously.”
Meanwhile, residents have expressed mixed feeling about paying their council bills.
Some residents in Ward 10 argue that they can’t pay rates since council is not providing any service.
“In Ward 10 we do not receive water, there are no roads and no collection of garbage.
“So why would we pay for services which are not provided?” asked one resident who preferred to be anonymous.
In Ward 6 residents are also angry at Council over their bills being products of estimations.
Mrs Florence Tapera said they used to pay US$15 for water bills and it has now increased to US$30.
“The council is now robbing us we used to pay US$15.
“Now they are charging us US$30 yet we rarely receive any water.
“In most cases, their bills are based on unreasonable estimates.
“That is why most people end up not paying their bills,” she said.
The recent Auditor General’s report named Marondera among the worst debt collecting council sin the country.
