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Michael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent
Redcliff Municipality has unveiled a $9,9 million 2019 budget to tackle perennial water challenges that the local authority has been facing since the closure of Ziscosteel.

The budget, based on internal revenue collection, is $1,9m up from last year’s budget of $8 million.

The budget however balloons to about $57 million if partnerships and other projects with private players are factored in. Redcliff Mayor Councillor Clayton Masiyatsva said the increase was a result of economic challenges that the country was currently going through.

“We had to review upwards to match with the current economic trends that have seen prices of most commodities go up. But I should hasten to say most of our tariffs remain unchanged save for licenses,” he said.

Clr Masiyatsva said licenses and spot fines have been raised by 50 percent.

“We have raised our licenses that are paid by tuck-shop owners, heavy and light industry by almost 50 percent. We have also raised our spot fines like for illegal vending, building illegal structures, dumping of waste and clamping of vehicles for illegal parking by 50 percent,” he said.

The mayor also said they have set aside $270 000 for the purchase of a fire tender. “We intend to purchase a fire tender and in consultation with the residents, they have agreed to part with $20 per household for two months towards the fund. Corporates will also pay $300 while SMEs will pay $30 per month. This is because we discovered that the money for repairing the available fire tender which is down, is almost equivalent to buying a new one,” said Clr Masiyatsva. He said there are many projects that the local authority will engage privet players. “We all know that our water treatment project has been neglected for a while now. We will engage private players in on PPPs so that we can be able to supply our own water other than relying Kwekwe City Council,” he said. Other projects that the local authority will engage private players include the prepaid water meter, upgrading of water and sewer lines as well as development of housing stands.