BULAWAYO residents have urged council to fully utilise its properties dotted across the city to generate revenue to cater for service delivery.
Bulawayo United Progressive Residents Association provincial secretary for administration Thabani Ndlovu and Bulawayo United Residents Association chairperson Winos Dube said the local authority was failing to provide service delivery due to lack of funding.
Ndlovu said council was failing to provide service delivery as evidenced by a number of illegal dumpsites in the city which have become a health hazard to residents.
“Most of the residents are not employed, in fact about 90% of the population in the city is not formally employed hence a few can afford to pay rates and this has led to poor service delivery,” Ndlovu said.
“This has led to the issue of poor sanitation as denoted by sewer bursts throughout the city.”
Ndlovu added that council should utilise its farms to generate more revenue.
“Back then council had Ingwebu Brewery which was able to sustain it and during those days there was better service delivery compared to nowadays,” he said.
Ndlovu said privatisation of Ingwebu by council led to loss of revenue.
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“Now the local authority is relying on rates paid by residents and donations, this has led the city to fail to even do proper waste management as in most places there are illegal dumpsites causing environmental degradation,” he said
“Over-reliance on the rates paid by residents has made it hard so at the moment council has to utilise its properties like farms so that it can have other sources of revenue,” he said.
Dube said local authorities were hamstrung by the prevailing deteriorating economic environment.
“As residents we have been trying to push council to utilise its properties like farms so that it has alternatives to get funds and provide better service delivery,” he said.
“If council could utilise its properties like farms and invest in some productive projects like the Ingwebu Brewery it would be able to generate funds. It currently relies on donations which has made matters worse as it is not guaranteed to get the necessary funds,” he said.
