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Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
OVER half of Harare residents are not paying their bills while Government and business are also major defaulters, a situation that has seen council being owed over $615 million.

Acting finance director Mr Tendai Kwenda said Harare collects between 45 and 50 percent of what it bills residents.

He said the situation was now unsustainable.

“It is sad to note that our debtor’s book is growing every month. The last time we reported we were on about $600 million. We are currently on $615 million. Where we are billing an average of $24 million a month, our collection rate is about 45 to 50 percent,” he said.

“What it means is that half of the people in Harare are not meeting their obligations to council and the same half still expects council to provide services. I do not know how. We have people who have not bothered to pay a single penny since the debt write off that was in June 2013 and we are in 2017.”

Details to follow…