Victoria Falls City Council seeks residents’ input on 2025 budget amidst ZWL$120 million debt

BY BAYANDA NKATHA

The Victoria Falls City Council has launched budget consultation meetings to gather residents’ input for the 2025 budget.

This comes after the council’s mid-year 2024 budget review revealed that it is owed over ZWL$120 million by ratepayers.

The commercial sector, primarily hotels, owes the largest amount at ZWL$79 million, followed by high-density residents at ZWL$20 million.

Medium and low-density suburbs owe around ZWL$9 million, while industrial sites owe ZWL$3.5 million, institutions owe ZWL$1.6 million, and the government owes ZWL$1.9 million.

Despite low attendance, the meetings began on Monday, with the first meeting at Chinotimba Pre-School rescheduled to Thursday due to poor turnout.

Residents at the Mosi-oa-Tunya High School meeting urged the council to initiate income-generating projects to reduce the burden on ratepayers.

Subsequent meetings in various wards and for special interest groups, such as the business community, youth, women, and disabled, also had low attendance but proceeded nonetheless.

Trymore Ndolo, an official from the Combined Victoria Falls Residents Association, emphasized the need for the council to develop alternative revenue streams through income-generating projects.

Lazarus Mudenda, the council’s credit controller, highlighted the challenges faced by the council due to non-payment by ratepayers and premium rates when transacting in local currency.