Harare – The government has ordered urban councils to slash down rates to 2004 levels in a move insiders said was calculated to precipitate the collapse of opposition-led councils and pave way for the state to take over control of the politically vital urban areas. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party controls five of Zimbabwe’s biggest cities excluding Harare where the opposition party lost control after the government controversially dismissed an MDC-led council that was running the capital and appointed a commission in its place. The MDC also swept nearly all urban constituencies during last month’s disputed parliamentary election to maintain its dominance in cities and towns. Insiders said the ruling Zanu PF party’s key politburo committee, stung by the part’s heavy loses in urban centres, tasked Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo, during its regular Wednesday meeting last week to ensure that all major towns and cities were wrestled away from the MDC. The order to freeze rate hikes and revert to last year’s levels is hoped to destabilise urban councils and cripple local governance and eventually provide a pretext for the government to fire MDC council executives for non-performance and appoint commissions in their places, Zanu PF insiders said.

Urban councils were already facing severe financial difficulties because of poor revenue inflows after the government again clamped down on rates last year. “The government plans to fire the councils on the basis of poor service delivery and appoint ministerial commissions as what happened in Harare. There is desperation to have back the control of urban centres in Zanu PF,” said a senior Zanu PF official, who did not want to be named. For example, in Zimbabwe’s fourth largest city of Mutare, opposition executive mayor, Misheck Kagurabadza said his council will certainly collapse if they reverse rates to last year’s levels. He said: “In December, we collected $3.5 billion and if we revert to that, then we won’t be able to pay half our workforce because our salary bill is $7.2 billion, never mind service delivery. We will just collapse,” he said. A government committee appointed to investigate the Mutare city council last year has already recommended that the entire council be fired and replaced by a government commission. Chombo however dismissed allegations that the instruction to revert to the old rates was meant to seize the opposition-controlled councils. He said: “Our interest is not in seeing the councils collapse but they have to follow procedures when increasing tariffs. We are safeguarding the residents. As for towns that fail to cope, well, we will take over as government if there are signs of failure.” The Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe vice president Japhet Ndabeni Ncube has constantly accused the government of sabotaging opposition-run municipalities by freezing rate hikes.

From Zim Online (SA), 14 April
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com