![]() ![]() Residents will not be able to escape the poverty trap given the high cost of rates as they shall be left with no disposable incomes to pay on other needs after paying council,” said Mr Dube. “The new rates fall outside what ordinary civil servants earn and what residents are able to generate from informal trading. “The high increase means that residents will be forced to pay more than 50 percent of their earnings towards utility bills which directly violates the economic principles which recommends that utility bills should not cost more than six percent of one’s earnings for them to be considered affordable. In a letter to the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) secretary for administration Mr Thembelani Dube said the new tariffs left residents exposed to the poverty trap as a huge chunk, if not all their monthly savings would now be directed to paying of council bills. The local authority this month started billing residents using their new rates as prescribed by the approved 2020 budget with a survey by this publication revealing that residents are now forking out between $280 and $700 in council rates per month. This comes amid revelations that a meeting organised by the council in Mpopoma to explain the council’s new credit policy was abandoned after the local authority sent a junior official. Meanwhile, Bulawayo residents are also up in arms with the council over the local authority’s recent move to effect a 716 percent rates and rental hike, with residents arguing that it violates their basic human rights. “It is a difficult scenario because while you have the law that criminalises this practice, landlords come in and claim there is a problem of the runaway inflation hence I feel there is a need for relevant stakeholders to look into this and come up with a lasting solution,” said Mr Nekati. Clearly these people are contributing to the country’s economic meltdown because what they are doing is tantamount to money laundering,” said Mr Shoko.īulawayo Real Estate managing director, Mr Michael Nekati said while it was illegal for landlords to charge their rentals in forex, they were faced with a situation where some were demanding such payment as a means of cushioning themselves from inflation. “We know that some people now think it is normal to demand rentals in forex but what monthly repairs do they do to their properties that require foreign currency, they don’t pay rentals in forex, neither do they remit taxes in forex. He said the fact that the landlords collected rentals in forex but subsequently were not remitting their taxes and rates in the same currencies was reason enough for them to be arrested and charged for corruption. “As you might know Zacc and the police are more of one entity in fighting such corrupt elements, worse still when there is a specific law that criminalises such acts,” said Mr Makamure.Īffirmative Action Group Matabeleland Chapter president Mr Reginald Shoko took a swipe at the landlords saying such people were not only bleeding the economy but were contributing to the suffering of Zimbabweans. ![]() “What is happening is that we are working with the police in monitoring this therefore we encourage members of the public to either approach our officials or their nearest police station. Zacc spokesperson Mr John Makamure says that while the monitoring of rental charges was not their primary mandate, they were, however, working with the police to ensure the implementation of Statutory Instrument 213 of 2019 which criminalises the charging in forex without seeking such a mandate from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. However, Zacc has reiterated the Government’s stance that the foreign currency demands were illegal.
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