Date: 29 May 2013
NINE more residents will on Friday 31 May
2013 lose their properties at the behest of the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) with
properties including freezers, refrigerators, television sets, lounge suites,
stoves and microwaves expected to be auctioned to recover the monies that the residents
owe the local authority. According to an advertisement placed by the Messenger
of Court in the Chronicle Newspaper
today (29 May 2013), the properties go
under the hammer at CIPF Complex along Khami Road opposite Monarch Steel at
9am. Another 17 residents had their properties similarly auctioned on 17 May
2013, barely two weeks ago. This brings the total number of residents who have lost
their properties to BCC during the month of May to 26. This is despite a
directive by the Ministry of Local Government, Urban and Rural Development
prohibiting the local authority from auctioning the properties of residents to
recover debts.
Bulawayo residents have expressed dismay
with the local authority for being insensitive to their plight with accusations that the city fathers
were being malicious as they were seizing residents’ properties on the basis of
a faulty billing system. BCC officials have on numerous occasions acknowledged
that the city’s billing system was faulty and encouraged residents with
misgivings about their bills to approach the local authority. However the
information has never been adequately communicated to residents. Calls by the
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) for BCC to stop seizing of
properties until the billing system has been rectified have fallen on deaf
ears, with the local authority continuing with the practice.
BPRA
is concerned that the city council continues to disconnect water, charge
penalties and seize the properties of residents on the basis of a faulty
billing system. Residents have complained that there are discrepancies between
the meter reading records at Tower Block and the actual metre readings in their
homes. BPRA sees it as scandalous that BCC has the audacity to auction the
properties of residents in arrears when it is cognisant of the fact that its
billing system is defective.
BPRA thus once again calls
upon the BCC to immediately put measures in place to put its billing system in
order. BPRA believes the local authority should stop water disconnections,
charging of water penalties and auctioning of residents’ properties until
problems with its billing system are rectified. It should also, through its
Public Relations Department and information centre, ensure that residents are
informed of the fact that the city’s billing system is problematic so that they
can ensure that they are not billed for water they have not consumed.
Meanwhile, the association is in the process of engaging with the Ministry of
Local Governance in an attempt to bring an end to this situation.
Regards
Information Department
Bulawayo
Progressive Residents Association
Bus. Tel: +263 9 61196
Cell: +263 772 516 729
Blog: www.bprainfo.blogspot.com
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