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Yeukai Karengezeka and Sallomy Matare
Harare City Council officials have raised concern over the non-collection of rentals at Marlborough Home Industry, an act that is crippling revenue inflow.

According to recent minutes of the Audit Committee, the auditors discovered that people operating at Marlborough Home Industry had no leases.

“The audit manager had carried out an investigation into non-collection of rentals at Marlborough Home Industry which had been requested by the Human Resources and General Purposes committee,” reads minutes of the committee.

“The allocation of stands was in 1998 by the then district officer to willing traders who had applied and no lease agreements were signed except the provisional letters which were given to the beneficiaries.”

The audit manager, Mr Archbald Nyamurova, reported that the sizes of the stands were not consistent with informal sector policies.

“He reported that the stands were too big as they ranged from 500 to 1 000 square metres which was against the requirements of the informal sector of 200 square metres for home industries,” he said.

“There was need to redraw the plans in line with the policy for home industries and submit a report to the environmental management committee for consideration.”

As at December 31 2018, it was also noted that most of the tenants were in huge arrears which ranged from $890 to $7 072 as the area was not serviced.

“The traders had raised an objection on the City of Harare’s annual budget, complaining about the land tax being charged,” reads the minutes.

“The committee was advised that council might fail to recover some of the outstanding arrears, hence there was need for council to sign lease agreements with those beneficiaries who will clear their arrears.”