Local authorities engage Government on debts

23 Oct, 2016 - 00:10 0 Views
Local authorities engage Government on debts Saviour Kasukuwere

The Sunday News

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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
URBAN local authorities countrywide have approached the Government seeking quasi-Government departments that are owed by councils to write off the debts saying they are burdening them.

In 2013, the Government directed that local authorities and other service providers such as Zesa relinquish debts they were owed by residents.

The local authorities now want Government to extend a similar gesture to them and have jointly agreed to petition Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere over the issue.

Minister Kasukuwere told a Local Government Investment Conference (Logic) which ended in Victoria Falls last week that only 10 of the 32 urban local authorities were yet to submit their petitions.

He said he would present the matter to Cabinet but could only do so once all councils submitted their petitions.

“On the issue of debts, I am still waiting for 11 councils to provide their submissions so that I can present the matter to Cabinet. I can’t present a half-baked report so I need comprehensive details and figures on how the issue can be handled,” he said.

Minister Kasukuwere said councils that hadn’t submitted their reports were Bulawayo, Harare, Gwanda, Gweru, Beitbridge, Chiredzi, Chipinge, Gokwe, Chirundu and Marondera while Hwange submitted at the conference.

This was after a councillor raised the issue during the conference, saying: “Government scraped debts for residents but didn’t do anything to alleviate the plight of local authorities. Can’t Government assume or erase some of the debts which are a heavy burden on local authorities?”

Local authorities said they were owed large sums of money by some Government departments while they also owe service providers such as Zesa, Zinwa and Zimra. They want Government to allow a swop of the debts or a complete waiver.

Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (Ucaz) president Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, who is Harare Mayor, said local authorities were seeking dialogue with Government.

“We are trying to get a permanent solution particularly with quasi-Government entities where we are owed substantial amounts of money. We had to write-off some debts on Government directive but that created challenges for local authorities because we remained owing state entities while they also owe us,” he said, adding that there was a need for creation of harmony.

Beitbridge Town Council is owed $18 million by Zimra while it also owes the parastatal $13 million, council chairperson Cllr Showa Moyo said.

The Logic conference was the first of its kind as urban local authorities combined efforts to come up with strategies to lure investors and encourage payment of rates at a time when funding was eluding them. The theme was: “Repositioning urban local authorities as agents for industrialisation, investment promotion and socio-economic development”.

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