Residents block council from $500 000 borrowing

Residents of Gwanda have objected to a Municipality Of Gwanda $500 000 borrowing powers.

The cash strapped Municipality recently ran a series of adverts in the local media proposing to borrow half a million dollars from private financial institutions to fund some capital projects in the town. The projects involved a $100 000 borrowing to acquire the hotly disputed prepaid water metres which have been resisted by the residents.

The other borrowings by the local authority were $200 000 for roads rehabilitation, $50 000 for income generating projects, $100 000 for a utility truck and $50 000 for streets lighting.

Objecting to the borrowing, the residents complained that they local authority had not consulted the residents on the sudden need to borrow the fund when the need was not highlighted in the recent budget consultation meetings.

The residents further questioned the council's credit worthiness as council is wriggling in massive debts which include $8 million owed to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority and close to half a million owed to workers in outstanding salaries.

Other amounts owed by the local authority include another half a million dollars owed to ZIMRA, $150 000 owed to the Local Authorities Pension Fund and $100 000 in overdrafts.

The residents also claim that the council has not been able to produce audited statements since 2012 and so can not be expected to borrow funds based on unaudited accounts.

On the specific projects that council is seeking to borrow funds on, the residents claim that Council can not be allowed to borrow funds for roads rehabilitation as the Zimbabwe National Roads Agency ZINARA is already on the ground rehabilitating the roads.

The council has also been denied an opportunity to borrow funds for income generating projects as residents feel that council has previously failed to operate income generating projects at a profit leading to the collapse of all the commercial undertakings that council invested into.

In the letter of objection signed by the Gwanda Residents Association Secretary Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo, the residents accuse council of failing to invest a $420 000 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe 2009 recapitalisation fund into profitable business ventures.

On the $100 000 borrowing for prepaid water metres, the residents completely rejected the proposal claiming that the residents have previously rejected the prepaid water metres and so will not have council borrow funds for the same.

The residents further claim that they can not allow the local authority to borrow funding for street lighting as residents have been paying a street lighting levy over the last 16 years and so demand council to use the funds from the levy to finance the project.

Efforts to get a comment from the Town Clerk failed as she was said to be out of town. However an official with the council acknowledged receipt of the submissions but said the council was not yet easy to comment on the residents submissions as the deadline for the submission of the objections is the second of February.