HARARE provincial development coordinator Tafadzwa Muguti says Town House should engage its creditors first instead of naming and shaming defaulters hoping to push them to settle their arrears.
In the past, the Harare City Council (HCC) has released names of government departments, churches and companies contributing the biggest chunk of the over $7.8 billion owed to the local authority.
Muguti said the government would chip in and help HCC recover what they are owed.
“The situation of revenue collection being highly diminished has become of major concern for the government…
“As the government, we have also stepped in to also talk to your government creditors to just try and ensure that there’s a harmonious working environment,” Muguti said.
Acting Harare mayor Stewart Mutizwa had this week cited the ‘name and shame’ policy as one option to ensure the local authority steps up revenue collection.
“We are appealing to the corporate world and individuals with the capacity to assist in our quest to improve service delivery as well as on issues to do with uncollected garbage. We can blame each other but that will not solve the matter.
“All customers need to play their part with residents and corporates paying their bills. Failure to pay over the years has gotten us to where we are now.
“Council is owed over $7.8 billion which if paid would go a long way in addressing the sticking service delivery areas.
“We have put mechanisms to recover the debts so that we can plough back into service delivery. Soon we are going to be publishing names of the huge debtors who are holding on to public funds.
“They were provided with the service but they chose not to pay. We will present the names of the top debtors; we will name and shame the top debtors,” Mutizwa said.