THE city of Harare is owed more than US$70 million by various stakeholders with residents being the biggest debtors, an official has said.
Council chairperson of the finance committee Costa Mande said this yesterday during a press conference. He said they have since engaged debtors to collect the outstanding money.
“The debt is around US$70 million and of this, the major chunk is the residents, then there are others like industry, the government and the dormitory towns, but those we have managed to deal with them heavily and their bill is now low, but mainly the residents are the major debtors so far,” he said.
Mande said apart from enlisting the services of debt collectors, the council had also engaged more staff to help in recovering the outstanding amounts, as well as encouraging residents to own up and pay their bills.
Turning to the contentious issue of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) billing system that was condemned by the government before ordering the local authority to revert to the previous ERP system, Mande said they have since complied with the directive. — New Ziana