BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) will, starting tomorrow, conduct public consultations to address issues to do with exorbitant billing, debt collection and power station ownership wrangles.
Lately, residents have been accusing the local authority of charging exorbitant rates based on estimates resulting in some of them receiving outrageous bills.
The meetings will be led by councillors in all the city’s wards.
In a statement yesterday, Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube said starting tomorrow and the following weekend council will embark on residents’ consultative meetings to address some of the concerns and issues affecting the city. “Residents and stakeholders of the City of Bulawayo are notified that council will be conducting billing, debt collecting and credit policy outreach meetings as well as consultation on the Bulawayo Power Station from Saturday 4 March to Friday 17 March 2023,” read the statement.
The deputy mayor Councillor Mlandu Ncube said council intends to get feedback from the community especially on topical issues affecting them.
He said the outreach programme on billing is meant to address some of concerns that residents have been raising about bills.
“We have been receiving a lot of complaints from residents who allege that their bills are exorbitant. So we are going to be taking our council teams to the wards so that they understand how the council implements its billing,” said Clr Ncube.
“They will also address queries from residents who have concerns over their bills. On the other hand, we want to explain our debt collection and credit policy. We are going to be explaining how the council handles debts and explain the procedures in terms of debt collection.”
Clr Ncube said council will educate the residents on the steps it takes to disconnect water to defaulting residents.
BCC is owed $36 billion by its debtors and these include domestic, commercial and Government departments while it owes its creditors $10 billion.
Clr Ncube said council also wants to get feedback from residents on how it should deal with the Bulawayo Power Station.
“We want to get input from residents on how to deal with the power station issue. We understand that Zimbabwe Power Company has attracted an investor in the development of the power station,” he said.
“The power station belongs to the city and therefore, we want to have feedback from the owners of the station so that they decide whether we sell it to ZPC or run it under a joint partnership.” – The Chronicle
