The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
TWO weeks ago the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) proposed a 2022 budget which will see residents in some places paying as much as $12 000 for rates, before factoring in water charges as the local authority targets to introduce various fees increases ranging between 155 percent and 687 percent.
Unlike in previous years, instead of a blanket percentage increase, council intends to introduce different percentage increments for various services. According to the proposed figures residents will pay 155 percent more for rates and rentals, 170 percent more for water, 300 percent more for refuse collection, 160 percent more for fixed sewerage charge, 170 percent more for the pipeline charge, 450 more percent on licences, 250 more percent for rents, 450 percent more for fees and 109 percent more for income interest.
Residents will also pay 40 percent more in grants, 650 percent more for sales and 687 percent more in other income sundry. Ward One residents — which encompasses the Central Business District — will be the most affected as ratepayers will pay $12 146 in rates alone before they factor in water usage. Residents questioned the proposed increment with the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association immediately raising a red flag and also engaging experts to explore its implications.
Sunday News (SN) last week hosted Ward One councillor who is also the city’s Deputy Mayor, Clr Mlandu Ncube (MN) to get his views on the proposed budget and the reaction from residents.
SN: Deputy Mayor Ncube, according to the recent proposed 2022 council budget, in your ward, ratepayers will be paying as much as $12 000 before the water charges, is this fair?
MN: With the services that they expect it must be fair, when you look at what the council has proposed to increase and proposed to do, it will be fair when we deliver services because what is important is; after collecting that money; are we going to be able to deliver services as a local authority to the satisfaction of residents.
So what is important is delivery of services and people should understand ward one is the Central Business District, it is very expensive to leave in town so people should pay so that we do not reduce the standards of our ward.
SN: How have been the payment trends of rates over the years because we know people have been struggling to pay for a number of services especially in the first half of the year?
MN: As for Ward One, I can say the trend is close to 45 to 50 percent, the crisis that we are facing is that the ward is made up of both residential and business premises of which most of the residential owners are paying.
However, we have got a challenge from the business side where we have discovered that most property owners are benefiting from their tenants and in turn these landlords are not remitting what is due to council.
Other businesses have been affected by the Covid-19 lockdown especially people who are operating Sports Bars which have been closed for the past one and a half years, we hope that with the government relaxing the lockdown they will improve in terms of payments.
SN: You talk of businesses that have been closed due to Covid-19 necessitated lockdown. Are there initiatives from you as a Ward One councillor and Deputy Mayor to say that council have an amnesty noting that these people lost months of business, have you tried tabling something to council?
MN: We have not done that as yet because we were operating with the 2021 budget so it is better that when the new budget year begins we introduce such a policy so that we can properly calculate how much revenue will be lost and how much will be collected. Definitely we will do something for our people who were heavily affected by the lockdown, if we can give our workers that were affected by closure of industries why are we not cushioning those that are paying so that we pay the workers.
SN: Deputy Mayor, you are saying people are struggling to pay the rates but then you are proposing an increase of an average of just over 200 percent, how are they then going to afford these new rates?
MN: It is an unfortunate situation because people need services, that 50 percent that is paying rates needs services.
Therefore, when we increase we try to cover-up for those that are not paying, which is not fair.
People should know that by not paying it actually affects the coming year’s budget because we will try to come up with a figure that will square up where we are having shortfalls. So we are encouraging our people to pay the little that they have.
Council is not saying that when your bill is $12 000 come and pay $12 000, we are saying come and pay something, do not allow your bill to go for three to four months without paying. However, for instance in the CBD you just go around people have divided their shops to small lettable units, you ask the person renting the lettable unit they will tell you they are paying close to US$120 a month.
The landlord will have close to 10 of those tenants paying that US$120 meaning they get US1 200 a month, it’s a serious crisis. I will tell you that in the CBD three quarters of those landlords are not paying because they just do not want to pay, we are thus saying to these property owners please pay before we take drastic measures.
SN: Looking at this 2022 budget, is it people-centred or it’s all about council making money?
MN: Can I let you in on a little secret, when this budget was first presented to us as councillors by the council officials, all councillors rejected the proposed increment but shockingly when we went to consult residents — for instance in my ward — they really adopted the proposed increment.
There are only two wards that rejected this proposed budget which are Ward 11 and another one which I am forgetting, this other ward in fact rejected the 200 percent but proposed another percentage increment.
This thus means that the people that we consulted agreed to the increment and they know what they need.
SN: We talk of an increase in rates but there is a decrease in service delivery, where do we strike the balance now?
MN: I do not agree that service delivery had decreased, in actual fact it has increased. If you go around in the CBD; first of its kind, we have renewed pavements, go to 12th Avenue you will find areas that were previously not been paved are now paved, that is an increase in service delivery, something that has never happened since Ian Smith’s time.
If you go to Old Pumula and Pumula East you will find that we have changed sewer pipes and we are replacing old meters. As of now I can tell you the local authority has close to 55 meter readers that are going door-to-door reading meters.
To me all that is service delivery increment, even if you check the state of our roads, yes, they are bad but you go around you see us repairing our roads under these difficult times.
You go to Princess Margaret Clinic or any of the council-owned clinics, you are attended to by a nurse who gives you Paracetamol, who gives you primary medical care, so to me service delivery has not decreased, yes, it has not increased drastically but we have managed to stay afloat.
SN: You raise the issue of meter reading, which has been a contentious issue over the years, with residents complaining on alleged estimated bills, what is being done to address this issue?
MN: The challenge is that the issue of meters we can blame both the consumer and the local authority, because you find that some meters are stolen and who steals those meters; it’s the community, who vandalises the meters; it’s the community but it becomes a challenge when it is not reported for the local authority to come replace those meters.
I should admit that we have stayed for a long period without replacing meters, but now we are in a process of replacing. I can tell you that in Pumula East, Entumbane and Nketa we are doing just that. We are saying to residents that the issue of estimates is not coming back because we have enough manpower for meter reading and we have technology to tell us that the meter reader did not get into that particular address. As we move on with technology we are expecting that we can be able to read your meter while we are seated at Tower Block.
SN: Going back to the area that you represent, the CBD, there is so much dirt, people are complaining, go to the 5th avenue market area there is so much dirt, what is going on, is council no longer serious about refuse collection?
MN: When you go outside, you will see a council person sweeping, so the issue of addressing the problem of litter is not a council issue, it is just an issue of attitude. I think we are the second country after Rwanda in Africa where we have seen the President going out declaring an anti-litter day. Where we actually see the highest office of the country actually picking litter, is a sign that every institution in this country is fighting against litter.
So, picking up litter does not help us clean the city, what is a challenge now is for people to change their attitude towards litter. As council we try our best to collect garbage, yes we face challenges here and there but I can tell you that our cleaning department its working hard.
If the community unites this issue of litter can be easily resolved. There is a gentleman called Tonderai Shoko, who is doing a Keep Bulawayo Clean campaign, he has been on this campaign for over 1 700 days continuously but people are still littering, so I think we should be dealing with attitude rather than what the local authority is doing.
SN: Lastly, Clr Ncube, during the last full council meeting you spoke passionately on the need for people to also start investing in the construction of double-storey houses in the high density areas, what is your thinking around this issue?
MN: Do you know we have people who feel like if they grew up in Makokoba for example, why should they move to other “affluent” suburbs. I am against the notion that Makokoba raises a billionaire then that billionaire goes to build in Burnside. Why are we not instead pushing to add value to Makokoba. Let’s develop our Makokoba, let us build nice houses in Makokoba, let’s bring the wealth down to the locations.
SN: But where is the value in that Deputy Mayor?
MN: If five of you build those double-storeys then there is value, so let us build our own economy. Further, it will also promote township tourism. I think we are the only country in Africa that doesn’t do that, go to South Africa, Cosmo, you will see huge buildings, go to Soweto, you will see huge buildings, why are we then not doing it? Actually go to Plumtree, in Mangwe, go to Tsholotsho, you will see those amazing houses there, so why are we not building them here?
SN: Thank you Deputy Mayor Ncube for your time and insights.
MN: Thank you for having me.
