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Highfield - Geneva report
Harare Residents
Trust
December 13, 2010
Report
of a public meeting held at an open space in Geneva suburb of Highfield
on Saturday 4 December 2010 at 10 am.
The Highfield
Residents Committee has received several reports from residents
of Highfield who feel betrayed by their councillors and other service
providers, especially the council's district office. It was out
of the community meeting convened on Saturday 27 November 2010 at
Zororo Community Centre that residents from Geneva, a part of Highfield,
raised alarm bells at the level of service provision in the area.
They claimed
that the majority of the residents have accumulated huge debts which
they felt could not be paid off. The majority of the people living
in the area are unemployed and make a living through running informal
businesses, vending and struggle to make ends meet. As a result
another meeting was called by the residents who wanted the Highfield
Residents' Committee to hear their issues and help them find a way
to resolve them.
Below is what
the residents said: There are three roomed houses, each family has
one room, with each room receiving a city bill ranging from US$45:
- Rented house-
one room Geneva (1x20) US$23
- Fixed domestic
HDA US$2
- Water consumption
high density US$6 (indications are that they have no water meters
yet they receive metred charges.)
- Sewerage
residential HDA US$2
- Refuse collection
US$3
Eddington Mugova,
Chairman Highfield Residents' Committee: What the City of Harare
is doing is unjust, from rented accommodation; they charge US$135
per household at US$45 each door. Residents of the area previously
dealt with the councillor, Councillor Maxwell Katsande and District
Officer Mrs Gowere and they were promised that the matter would
be resolved. They were advised to stop payments until this matter
was resolved. Since the dollarization, most residents have not paid
their bills, accumulating bills amounting to at least US$800.
Residents who
have made payments have been unable to pay the full amount, and
have been paying US$20 or US$15 every month, meaning these residents
have been continually accumulating a deficit of US$25 every month,
and the council has still failed to respond to this issue.
Council property:
No repairs, no door windows, no water supplies in some blocks, and
they have been given notices to vacate their houses. There are 1
038 tenants.
Position: Highfield
residents' leadership convened a meeting in the area on Saturday
to discuss the problems with residents.
Contact the
HRT on 0772-869294/ 0772-771860 or email us on hretrust@yahoo.com
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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