Council on debt recovery exercise

Comment & Analysis
MUTARE — Several manufacturing companies owing Mutare City Council money because of unpaid rates and supplementary charges are set to appear in court soon after the local authority embarked on the a blitz on defaulters.

The council, through its lawyers — Bere Brothers Legal Practitioners — last week embarked on a debt recovery exercise on industries, sparking widespread panic on industrialists, the majority of them struggling to remain afloat. Last week, the law firm started distributing final demand letters to various industries in the city, giving defaulters seven working days to settle their debts, failure of which they would issue court summons without further notice.

Apart from paying the principal amount, the defaulters would also be required to pay an additional 10% collection commission. Mutare City Council is owed US$18,5 million by the defaulters and Bere Brothers are set to realise about US$1,8 million as debt collection commission.

Mutare City Council town clerk, Obert Muzawazi, last week confirmed the debt recovery exercise. “This is aimed at recovering what the council is being owed. We are targeting commercial entities because some of them are using and benefiting from our facilities yet they are deliberately not paying.”

— BY CLAYTON MASEKESA