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Thursday, February 6, 2025
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Councils to lose millions during lockdown-Makombe

By Willie Mponda

Local authorities in Zimbabwe are set to lose millions of dollars in
revenue due to the current 30 day Covid-19 lockdown announced over the weekend by the Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.

Urban Councils Association  of Zimbabwe (UCAZ), President who is also
Gweru mayor Clr Josiah Makombe said while the current lockdown is
necessary to protect human lives, it has a great negative impact on
operations of local authorities as they depend heavily on revenue from
its stakeholders.

UCAZ President Josiah Makombe

“It is now of common knowledge that once they is a lockdown, local
authorities are the most affected as they won’t be any revenue inflows
or business as residents and stakeholders won’t be able to pay for
services.

On the other hand, local authorities are supposed to give the same
services to residents without any revenue inflow, hence our appeal to
the central government to come in with a bailout package for councils
to allow services to be provided without challenges,” said Clr Makombe

He appealed to the government to support local authorities by pressuring
government departments to pay  outstanding bills which runs into millions of dollars.

Makombe said the government should come up with a mechanism for local authorities to get water chemicals.

During the first lockdown last year Gweru City Council only collected
ZW$2million against projected revenue of more than US$9.8million. #The Sun

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