The Chitungwiza Municipality has begun a door-to-door campaign to recover the ZiG160 million it is owed by ratepayers.
The exercise, which runs from October 3 to 17 is meant to enhance convenience for residents and other stakeholders.
Council teams in the sprawling town are moving with point-of-sale machines to entice residents and other stakeholders to settle their bills.
Council spokesperson Tafadzwa Kachiko said the blitz is targeting residentials, commercial stands, institutions and industries. He said the council had thought that ratepayers would visit banking halls to pay which did not happen, necessitating the latest drive.
On paper, this is a noble exercise which should be replicated by all local authorities to recover what they are owed.
There is no doubt that councils need the money so that they continue providing the service to ratepayers.
There has been a sad culture of not paying whether on bills or loans, either by default or by design. It is a culture which began with some of the country’s politicians and is now cascading to the lower end of the social strata.
For water to come out of the tap, money is involved. Money is required to attend to burst sewer pipes and for fuel for refuse collection.
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The failure by residents to pay for bills could also illustrate their low confidence in councils.
Residents do not believe that their money would be put to good use. Heaps of garbage are a common sight in most high density suburbs and some areas have not received water from their taps in years. Yet, every month, they religiously pay for bills.
Council officials who move around in suburbs doing meter reading had not been seen in the post-COVID 19 era. This means all bills are estimated.
A recent visit to one of the Harare City Council (HCC) banking halls on Fridays or Saturday could explain why ratepayers do not want to pay for bills.
There were long queues and few open counters, ostensibly to reduce the number of people claiming overtime especially during weekends.
There was no zeal to work by council employees because they were not being paid on time due to a failure by ratepayers to settle bills. Ratepayers will say they wanted to pay, but were put off by the slow service in the banking halls. It’s a vicious cycle.
HCC billing is in shambles with bills as a result of guesswork.
In June, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume told a full council meeting that the local authority had no information on the number of households it is billing for services.
In such an environment, ratepayers have no motivation to pay for bills. There have been concerns that council managers and councillors are fattening their wallets by splurging money on endless workshops and perks at a time service delivery has deteriorated.
The ongoing commission of inquiry into the state of affairs at HCC has revealed that it is a free "for" all with city executives and councillors on a looting exercise.
This sends a wrong signal to dedicated ratepayers that believe in paying their bills to fund service delivery.
Work is cut out for councils to put their houses in order and instil confidence in ratepayers.
They should engage those that are not paying bills to hear their concerns or introduce payment plans. Some like Bulawayo have introduced discounts which encouraged the settling of bills.
Service delivery should be the buzzword in local authorities to regain the confidence of ratepayers.
