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Byo engages lawyers against government
The Zimbabwe Independent
January 13, 2006

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2006/January/Friday13/3975.html

IN a bid to recover over $396 billion owed by government departments and residents, the Bulawayo city council has engaged 12 legal firms to speed up the process, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.

The move comes after persistent calls for the government to pay up hit a brickwall in the past.

Government departments owe the council $86 billion while residents owe $270 billion with the remainder being interest on the overall debt.

The council has also engaged the Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa over the debt but the dialogue has failed to yield the desired results.

Law firms that have been engaged by council to collect the huge debt include Ben Baron, Hara & Partners, Sansole & Senda, Lazarus & Sarif, and Webb Low & Berry.

Bulawayo mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube confirmed that the local authority has engaged the law firms and said the move was paying dividends as government had made a commitment to pay after papers were served on some departments.

The other law firms that council has engaged include Mazorodze, Nyathi & Partners, Mabhikwa, Hikwa & Nyathi, and James Moyo Majwabu & Nyoni.

Ncube said the council has resorted to taking legal action after residents and government failed to make payments for service deliveries.

"Council had no option but to resort to the law firms to collect the debt. We had to find a way to rein-in the trend if we were to survive and sustain operations," Ncube said.

He said as a result of the council action, government was now making efforts to pay up.

Ncube said the government has since written to council enquiring about payment arrangements for the debt.

"The Bulawayo acting provincial administrator wrote to us last month requesting information on government departments that had outstanding bills and that information was availed to him so that he could remind them to settle their bills," Ncube said.

The Bulawayo city council is in dire need of cash to finance some of its capital projects that have been in limbo for the past two years due to lack of funding.

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