By Delicious Mathuthu
As Gweru City Council begins its 2024 budget making process, Persons With Disability (PWDs) have renewed their fight to be exempted from paying council bills, with hope that the new councilors will be considerate to their plight.
Several PWDs who spoke to Community Voices Zimbabwe ((CVZ) said the disabilities community desperately needs bill exemptions as they are burdened by council debts and extra costs incurred as persons with disabilities on a daily basis to facilitate normal living.
The bills exemptions for PWDs were mooted by former Gweru Mayor, Hamutendi Kombayi, towards the end of his term after a long break, along with discounts for the elderly persons in the city, but this has remained a pipedream.
Belinda Musesengwe of the Midlands Association for the Promotion of Rights and Welfare of the Visually Impaired, implored the local authority and councillors to bring the long standing bills meant to lessen the burden of PWDs to fruition.
“What we want, or our plight, with this new council is that this issue started way back, kubva kuna(former) Mayor vaKombayi, kubva kwekutanga tanga (from Mayor Kombayi’s first term); with Mayor Kombayi we asked that we be exempted from paying bills and he agreed then,” she said.
Musesengwe said life is tough already for everyone in the country thus it is worse for the visually impaired.
“So to the new councilors, we are saying ndimi ana baba veGweru inzwaiwo kuchema kwevanhu vasingawoni (you are the Gweru city fathers, hear the plight of the visually impaired)… hupenyu hwakaoma hapana kwatowana mari dzekubhadhara mvura (life is hard, there is no where we can get money to pay for water).
“Exempt us please, ishoma dzimba dzinevanhu vasingawone ngavatibatsire (houses of the visually impaired are very few, they should help us). A visually impaired person’s living is hard. If life is difficult for an able bodied person what more a person with disability?
“Visually impaired people live through handouts, most people look down upon them and it is difficult to find ways to make a living, like vending,” she said.
She added that only those with houses under their names or who have proof of inheritance of those houses should be eligible for the exemptions, and not those renting.
Another PWD, Primrose Ngondo, said the PWD bill exemptions were once top in the agenda but the process was not
clear. She indicated that she had managed to submit her papers to council sometime back but is still to benefit anything.
“I don’t really know how they went about it, personally I went with my paper work (to council) but ndakazonzwa vakuti dai ndaenda (heard them now saying I should have gone) through another person. So I felt like if ever there is a list I am not part of that list,” she said.
Ngondo said most people do not understand why PWDs seek exemptions from paying their bills.
“For the new councilors, expect them to speed up the process. I know most people don’t get why as PWDs we are asking for these exemptions. Inyaya yekuti kana usati wambobvira waita a disability (if you have never had a disability) or usina kumboziva munhu ane disability (or know someone with a disability) that well, you don’t understand kuti (that) as a person with a disability we live with extra expenses that other people will never ever have to face.
“So, to us, at least this will assist kurerutsa mukurarama (ease our living), so this is another way of government, or the community helping us in a way.
“For example if we need transport, you can easily get on a bus but with me I struggle and at the end of the day I would end up having to hire a car for me to travel. So this is a way of helping us, easing the burden,” Ngondo said.
Lloyd Mujeyi, another PWD, told CVZ that the new councilors should stand up for them in council and assist with ensuring the bill exemptions are granted.
“To the new council, tirikutarisa kuti ivo vave vanofanigwa kumiririra nyaya yekuti ma PWDs vaitwe (we are expecting them to be the ones standing up for us to get) exemption in all bills of council,” Mujeyi said.
He said council should be sensitive and sympathise with PWDs as some are being threatened with property seizures for failing to pay their bills.
“Ngavatimirire because hatifaniri kunge tiri vanhu vanosungiswa kana panezvikwereti nekuti matsamba amwe ayiwuya achinzi tirikuuya kuzokutorerai zvinhu, tirikuuya kuzodini dini (they should defend us because we are not supposed to be dragged to court if we have arrears because we received letters that threatened property seizures) yet it is them who we expect kuti vatibetsere vachitipawo zvikwanisiro kuti tibatsirikane (to assist us, to give resources that can help us),” he said.
Mujeyi also added that the local authority should put aside resources in the coming 2024 budget to assist PWDs in the city.
He also pleaded with council to avail housing stands for PWDs and consider those who made special requests from the sector who were however added to the long council waiting list.
Audrey Rusike from the Quadriplegic and Paraplegic Association of Zimbabwe (QUAPAZ) said Gweru City should copy what other cities and towns are doing in assisting PWDs.
“Gweru should emulate what other councils have done, kuti munhu ane disability haabhadhare (that a PWD does not pay) ma-rates if they have a tuckshop, msika (vegetable market) or shops; they are exempted so that vanorarama zvirinani (they can live better lives),” she said.
Rusike also called for a 15 percent stake for all that council dose; such as stands allocations and other projects set to benefit residents.
Gweru City Council Public Relations Officer, Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said the local authority is still looking into the practicality of the exemptions for PWDs, including the elderly with relevant data having been already gathered. She highlighted that the local authority is now seized with finding alternative revenue streams to cover for those who would be exempted.
“We are still looking into the feasibility of exemptions for people with disabilities and the elderly. We have gathered the data. Now we are looking at it’s feasibility, particularly looking at best ways to cover up for the revenue, that those who will be exempted won’t pay,” she said.
Chingwaramusee also encouraged PWDs to attend budget meetings to voice their concerns as the local authority starts consulting for next year’s budget.
“We also encourage the people with disabilities to come for the 2024 budget consultations, so that we can strategise best practices of serving them,” she said.
Gweru City Deputy Finance Director, Owen Masimba, reiterated Chingwaramusee’s sentiments during one of the first budget consultation meetings held in September with residents associations.
“For it to be afforded we are supposed to identify revenue sources that will cover for the expenses incurred in providing a service in that category.It is not possible for someone to just get a service and not cover for those expenses, hence the need to find other revenue lines.We have completed the feasibility study now what is left is to identify a revenue line which will meet the expenses incurred by that specific community,” he said.
Looking at the PWDs bill exemption lobbying history, Belinda Musesengwe traced the footpath in which the fight has taken so far.
She said the issue has been on and off over the years due to gentlemen’s agreements with previous council official, lacking written agreements for continuity.
“When Kombayi was Mayor (after 2013 elections), we pushed this issue and he agreed and noted that people who are visually impaired are very few in Gweru, which is true that those who own house are few. So when Mayor Kombayi was removed we had not written down the agreement yet, and he was replace by the Mhangami Commission,” she said.
Musesengwe said the commissioners also agreed to the idea but again nothing was put in black and white till they left.
“Chirikunetsa mukanzuru ndechekuti hazvina kunyorwa pasi saka Mayor anotevera anofanirwa kuwana mitemo yakanyorwa pasi (the problem is that it was not written down so that the following Mayor found the policy written) so that vanyowani vanotevedzera zviripo (the new Mayors follow what is there),” she said.
“The situation is that when we agree and those who would be in office go, those who come after them change or disagree with us then we start all over again,” she said.
Musesengwe said they were once successful under the late former Finance Director, Mr Edgar Mwedzi where their arrears and bills were scrapped, after consensus with Councilor Kombayi, but after Mwedzi left Gweru City Council, the agreement was reversed.
She said the Acting Finance Director who took over, then, said there was no such agreement with PWDs.
Source: The Guiding Star
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