The City of Harare has announced through its Twitter page that it will be charging outstanding payments in US dollars for those who fail to pay up.
The city council has given people owing them money a grace period of three months to settle outstanding bills or they will have to pay those bills in US dollars at the prevailing bank rates.
People have lashed out beneath their tweets citing poor service delivery and have expressed that until service delivery matches the request city council is preaching to the choir.
In their tweet, the City of Harare noted that they are owed US$ 17 billion in outstanding bill payments. They also said that this is a challenge particularly because they source their goods and services at the black market rate yet their budget is pegged at the prevailing interbank rates. This is presumably why they are failing to deliver good service to the people.
As it stands many people in the city do not have access to clean drinkable water. Those that are privileged to have city council water running out of their taps are unable to drink it. Some people haven’t had city council water for years. This means that they have to rely on other sources for water.
Jojo tanks are popular because people have to buy them and pay for bulk water deliveries at no less than 25 USD per delivery. Most people cannot afford to pay for bulk water deliveries and also pay the city council for water they do not deliver most of the time.
Water is not the only problem. Refuse collection is another big problem in the city. The refuse trucks can collect waste months apart and they do not collect at all in some areas. This means that people have to find ways to dispose of their own garbage. Some irresponsible people dump the waste. Others pay an extra fee to have refuse collectors carry their trash.
People in the city generally feel it is unfair to be charged for services that they do not use. Some have resorted to not paying their city council bills at all and have commented under the tweet that they will not be moved by the statement.