Zimbabwe Local Government Ministry Directs Councils to Disconnect Water for Unpaid Bills

LOCAL authorities should disconnect water supplies to government departments that fail to pay their bills, Local Government and Public Works permanent secretary Tafadzwa Muguti has said. He was speaking at a workshop in Kadoma Monday which was attended by town clerks, secretaries and chief executive officers from all 92 local authorities. Muguti said central government could not expect councils to meet performance targets and deliver services while government departments themselves failed to settle their bills. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn "We should all understand that the moment central government does not pay bills to local government, we are removing spanners and screws on a car's wheel, and it will be in an accident. "So we can not have a sense where we are making you sign performance contracts and then we do not deliver on those performance contracts. "It has to balance and this is where we as the central government have been making a mistake," Muguti said. His remarks come amid longstanding concerns over government departments accumulating unpaid rates, water bills and other service charges owed to councils. Last year, Beitbridge Municipality said government departments were among its biggest debtors, with the local authority seeking to recover $14.1 million in unpaid rates, service charges and water bills. The council said the arrears were hampering its ability to implement capital projects and maintain water supplies to residents. Harare City Council was also owed ZiG9.5 billion by various ratepayers as of 2026, with government accounting for 3.4% of the outstanding debt, according to council figures. Under Zimbabwe's Urban Councils Act, councils have powers to recover unpaid rates, including charging interest on arrears and pursuing legal recovery in qualifying cases. Read the original article on New Zimbabwe . AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us . AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC. Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy . We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.