Gweru City Threatens Residents, Ratepayers Over Ballooning Debt

Gweru — The City of Gweru has issued a 14-day ultimatum to defaulting ratepayers and commercial tenants occupying Municipal properties to clear their outstanding bills in full, as the local authority moves to try and recover ZiG1.2 billion it is owed.

The directive, issued by the council’s Communication and Public Relations office, targets all residential and commercial defaulters.

This includes tenants occupying billboard spaces, tuck shops, gas kiosks, council houses, industrial bays and shops across the Midlands capital.

"The City of Gweru hereby gives 14 days to all ratepayers with outstanding bills, as well as tenants of council properties...to settle their arrears in full," the notice reads.

Ratepayers have until June 30, 2026, to settle their arrears or face immediate legal action and the repossession of council-owned properties, the local authority said.

"The city's debtors' book has ballooned to ZiG1.2 billion, severely impacting service delivery. To restore essential services and maintain our city, we must recover what is owed," council said.

The council emphasised that aggressive revenue mobilisation has become unavoidable to restore essential services and maintain basic Municipal infrastructure.

The local authority has warned that it will no longer tolerate non-compliance, stating that the current financial trajectory is unsustainable.

Residents and commercial entities have been urged to approach the town house to regularise their accounts before the mid-year deadline lapses.

The current debt crisis reflects a long-standing challenge for the Gweru City Council (GCC), which has historically struggled with revenue collection amidst macroeconomic adjustments and structural currency transitions previously.

Over the past decade, the local authority's debtors' book has expanded continuously.

Previous attempts by the council to employ aggressive recovery strategies, such as contracting third-party debt collectors and implementing arbitrary water disconnections, precipitated significant friction with resident representative bodies, who routinely demanded comprehensive billing audits and disputed the legal standing of private collection firms.

Following the stabilisation frameworks introduced with the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency, Municipal balances were re-indexed, exposing the true magnitude of the local authority's fiscal deficit.

Legal experts indicate that while local authorities may have the statutory power to institute litigation, attach property and evict defaulting tenants from council infrastructure, the execution of these enforcement measures requires meticulous administrative adherence to avoid protracted legal challenges from civic groups and legal aid organisations.