Sydney Mubaiwa

MIDLANDS BUREAU CHIEF

KWEKWE – Zibagwe Rural District Council (ZRDC) has roped in traditional leaders to encourage their subjects to pay development levies as the local authority seeks to boost its revenue base.

The local authority also dangled a 50 per cent discount to miners with outstanding debts as of December 31, 2022.

Zibagwe is owed about $1.2 billion by debtors, and the debt continues to grow each month.

Speaking during a recent full council meeting, the local authority chief executive officer Farayi Machaya said the council will continue exploring ways of engaging the debtors to pay up. The development is impacting negatively on council operations.

“Our debtors have continued to increase owing to non-compliance, and engagements are being made with individual clients to encourage them to pay. Further, we have since written final demand letters to improve revenue collection. The non-compliance by our debtors is putting a hurdle on our ability to service our obligations as they fall due. We are, however, optimistic that revenue will improve and we will be able to liquidate our creditors,” he said.
Zibagwe RDC owes $253 million to its creditors.
He said chiefs are custodians of society and play a critical role in encouraging their communities to pay development levies.
“We held a meeting with traditional chiefs in March where we requested them to encourage their respective communities to pay development levy in time to improve development in their localities. They have an obligation to develop levies as stipulated in the Traditional Leaders Act (Chapter 29:17) Section 12(j) that village heads are responsible for collecting development levies,” he said.

He said they are roping in village heads for further deliberations on the development levy.

“We are offering a 50 per cent discount to small-scale-miners for outstanding debts as of December 31, 2022, to improve council revenues. The period for the discount, however, closed on April 15,” he said.

He said the council has recorded a 22 per cent billing efficiency.

“The cumulative total billed to date is now $702 million against a projected budget of $3,2billion, which translates to a billing efficiency of 22 per cent. Our thrust is to ensure that by year end, our billing efficiency would have reached 100 percent,” he said.

In March, the council had recorded a 5.5 per cent budget performance.

“Revenue collected by March 13, 2023 amounted to $175 million, which is 5.5 per cent of our local revenue budget of $3 billion. The average month-to-month revenue for the first quarter of 2023 is $58 million,” he said.