Imagine that you’re a teacher in Zimbabwe and that your wage, as agreed upon by the new Unity Government is US$100/month, and a relative passes away, and you need to organise the burial. Below, in a recent statement, the civic organisation Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) points out that the dying wage that many Zimbabweans are earning is not enough to bury a loved one.

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) registers its utter disappointment and disapproval of the recently introduced burial fees structure by the City Council. The City council is charging US$460 burial fees for Warren Hills cemetery, US$350 for Granville and US$260 for Tafara. CHRA categorically declares that such fees are unaffordable and do not at all reflect the current socio-economic realities obtaining in the country where most civil servants are earning an average of US$100 per month. Furthermore, the city council arrived at such fees without prior consultation of the residents. The new burial charges come at a time when the 2009 city budget has not been approved yet the rates have been reviewed to astronomical levels of about US$130 (for low density areas) and US$25 to US$35 (for high density areas). While CHRA appreciates that the review of the service charges is meant to resuscitate service delivery, we are also worried about reports we are receiving to the effect that the council employees have awarded each other hefty salaries following the review of the service charges. CHRA is yet to confirm but has received reports that the least remunerated employee at town house is getting an average of US$300 per month. The Association urges the city councilors to review downwards all tariffs and levies against the residents. CHRA has since written to the City Council protesting over the new fees, levies and service charges structure. We have not gotten a response from the council, thus CHRA is currently consulting its membership over the next course of action. CHRA will continue to advocate and lobby for an accountable and transparent local governance system that provides quality and affordable service delivery on a non partisan basis.

This entry was posted on March 4th, 2009 at 1:56 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Activism, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.