Harare residents urged to boycott paying rates

The Harare Residents Trust has urged residents to discontinue payment of their rates until the directors who received excessive salaries and allowances have returned it to the council.

The trust said the ongoing water disconnections by the City of Harare should stop immediately. Residents will not be cowed into entering unsustainable payment plans which are only designed to exploit the poor, while the councillors and senior management of council have it all good.

"Let us not sustain their luxurious lives and make them realise that the Resident is the King, the Queen, and cannot be hoodwinked by Town House anymore. Cainos Chimombe (Human Capital), Dr Tendai Mahachi (former Town Clerk), Prosper Chonzi (Director of Health), Tendai Kwenda (Finance Controller), Josephine Ncube (Chamber Secretary, Acting Town Clerk), Philip Pfukwa (Director Public Works), and Christopher Zvobgo (Director Harare Water)," said trust.

"These seven must return the money they illegally collected from council. Stop the water disconnections. The HRT is busy in the community raising awareness of the ongoing massive corruption around housing delivery, water connections, business development units under the Harare Sunshine Holdings, including at City Parking, where Alois Masepe, the Chief Executive Officer is allegedly collaborating with officials in the City Treasury and some super councillors to refuse to account to the City of Harare, the major investor in Harare Sunshine Holdings."

The trust these councillors involved are actually more money than the Directors earlier mentioned, and they are using their respective committees to shut out managers who ask too many difficult questions on transparency and accountability.