BY VANESSA GUZHA
HARARE acting mayor Musarurwa Mutizwa has disclosed that council is owed over $7,8 billion by residents and companies which, if paid, would go a long way in addressing the sticking service delivery areas.
Mutizwa made the remarks on Monday while addressing a city beautification and garbage collection ceremony which was held in the central business district.
“We have put mechanisms to recover the debts so that we can plough that money into service delivery,” he said.
“Soon, we are publicising names of huge debtors who are holding on to public funds meant for service delivery.
“Services were provided, but they did not pay, they are now holding the city at ransom.”
Mutizwa said the council was currently operating with 20% of its garbage collection fleet, while working on increasing the fleet availability to 75% within the next 30 days.
“We appeal to individuals and corporates to assist to carry out a blitz to remove illegal dumps through provision of pieces of equipment such as trucks, dumpers, front end loaders, dozers, tractors mounted with trailers and compactors,” he said.
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Mutizwa added that council was working on resuscitating its broken down equipment so that it gets running in the shortest possible time, appealing to those with the capacity to do the repairs to approach him.
“Our appeal also goes to corporations to assist in implementing programmes to recycle and reuse waste at source or community-based initiatives,” he said.
The acting mayor said it was the responsibility of corporations to ensure that they minimised the environmental impact caused by their products.
Government has provided the council with $438 million towards recapitalisation of waste management and equipment.
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