…urges purchase new transformer to improve water supply
EDWIN MOYO
Gweru- Gweru City Mayor, Cllr Hamutendi Kombayi has expressed concern over what he said are illegal billing in USD in some suburbs by Council.
During the 699th extraordinary full council meeting Cllr Kombayi said collecting revenue in USD without Council resolution was illegal.
He added that a lot needs to be done for council to effectively provide services to the residents.
“It has come to my attention that some council workers are moving around collecting revenue in US dollars without a resolution from council. That is very bad because all resolutions come from council and to do so without a resolution is illegal.
“We need to know how much has been collected and move to further integrate the US dollar so that it is implemented in line with council resolutions.
“The parallel market rate has surged over the past weeks and this has serious implications on our budget. I here by direct the Chairperson of Finance, Councillor Martin Chivhoko and Director of finance, Mr Masimba to look into the issue of the market exchange rate and see its implications on our budget and workers’ wages,” he added.
Kombayi further said,council was supposed to do due diligence in the purchase of a new transformer to increase water pumping capacity.
“Our water supply is poor as a city, imagine we are providing 32 megalitres instead of the required 70 megalitres, we need to boost our supply as a city for the benefit of the people.
“Remember we improve our water by the funds we get from the ratepayers, that which we charge must come back to serve the people. We have a serious challenge where people are not paying because we are not providing the much needed resource.
“See to it that before money is transferred to the supplier we have a good and new transformer to supply water, last time we were given a second hand transformer which is now giving us problems. Residents come first, look for a new transformer to enable water pumping at Gwenhoro please.
“We are owed up to ZWS$12 billion in rates but we also understand that our service provision standards are not up to the expectations of the residents and we need to look into that area. I would like to urge the Town Clerk that before he pays the allowances for the employees, the residents’ concerns are addressed,” he added.
Water challenges continue to haunt the city of Gweru with some areas such as Mkoba 19, Mtapa, Ridgemont and some Senga CBZ sections having gone for more than 20 years without water provision due to dilapidated water infrastructure.
