Source: Harare Residents Trust castigates 2026 City of Harare budget – herald
Diana Nherera
Herald Reporter
THE Harare Residents Trust has described the proposed 2026 City of Harare budget as unreasonable in many ways as it proposes unjustified rate increases.
In an interview, Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba said council has failed to listen to the concerns of ratepayers.
“The City of Harare has failed to listen to the concerns of ratepayers and is now resorting to throwing figures around to cover the perceived funding gap after the Government’s ease of doing business statutory instrument, where local authorities were directed to cut business licence fees, among other rates,” he said.
Mr Shumba urged Harare residents to submit their objections to the proposed budget by December 1, 2025.
“We are urging Harare residents to submit their objections to the proposed budget by 1 December 2025 so that we force the council to adjust their budget to levels acceptable to the majority of residents,” he said.
In a statement at a tour of the Helcraw Water project recently, Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations Residents Trust (ZNOART), national chairman, Mr Shalvar Chikomba, said the proposed 2026 City of Harare budget is outrageous on the water tariff hike and other services and described it as inhumane.
“We urge them to please go back to the figures which residents proposed during your budget consultations,” he said.
“If I can remember very well, we had recommended that you lower your tariffs or remain on the ones we had agreed on for 2025.
“The property taxes and waste management sewer tariffs are unacceptable. We need our council to focus on total service delivery rather than to fatten their pockets at the ratepayers’ expense.
“If they continue forgetting their mandate, it leaves us with no option but to call on the Government through President Mnangagwa to intervene and stop these outrageous budgets some of these local authorities are advancing.”
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