Police quiz Bulawayo mayor, town clerk over rates hike

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By Staff Reporter

THE acting Town Clerk of Bulawayo, Joel Madubeko was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly defying a government ordered rates and price freeze.

Bulawayo mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube told New Zimbabwe.com that Madubeko spent most of Tuesday at the police’s licensing inspectorate at Drill Hall, “assisting police in their investigations”.

“We passed a supplementary budget on June 13, which was going to be effective on August 1. The presidential proclamation was only made last week. Some people apparently phoned the police, and that misinformation resulted in the police coming to our offices.

“We showed them our books and resolutions. It was a kind of disturbing probing, but we hope they understood in the end,” Ndabeni-Ncube said.

He said even after he and his team had proved to the cops that “we didn’t break any law”, they insisted that either him or the town clerk must accompany them to Drill Hall to answer further questions.

“It was either me or him. I had other pressing official engagements and they understood and took the acting town clerk. He spent quite some time there but was released without charge. We take it as an uninformed misunderstanding on the part of the police,” said the mayor.

Asked about the attitude of the cops, he said they “were friendly but one could see that they meant business because they kept saying we would answer in court”.

Police could not comment on the matter.

President Mugabe last week issued a decree freezing prices and wages, and said these could only be raised with the express approval of a commission he is yet to handpick.

The Bulawayo City Council in June approved a supplementary budget with a 2 600 percent hike in charges, citing inflation and a ballooning wage bill. The local authority said when it crafted the original budget, inflation was targeted to be 393 percent but it had reached 3 713 percent by April, meaning the budget was underperforming by 3 320 percent, leaving the council with no cash for essential services.

In the revised budget, supplementary charges went up from $3 350 to $89 210, 50 a month, while sewerage fees went up from $880 to $23 434.

The fixed charge component for water supplies went up from $2 988 to $79 584 a month, while the charge for consumed water went up from $490 to $13 061 per kilolitre.

Ambulance fees were hiked from $23 200 to $617 816, with burial fees going up from $1 778 465 to $3 557 948.

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