budget

BVTA equips traders with business management skills

At least 100 informal traders from Bulawayo have been trained on business management and financial literacy by the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) as part of efforts to assist them to identify new opportunities, grow their businesses and establish business linkages. The traders were trained on budgeting, savings, record keeping, investing and processes of acquiring a vending license. Speaking to CITE, BVTA director Michael Ndiweni said the training was made possible through a grant from the Zimbabwe Resilient Building Fund (ZRBF) to implement a five month project termed Market aggregation Covid-19 Vendors Response and Market Access Project (VCR- MAP) . He said the training seeks to equip vendors with skills to expand their business at the same time responding to Covid-19 pandemic. “This market aggregation project is part of Sizimele, a consortium made up of a number of partners including BVTA, Tsambe, ORAP. It seeks to bring together people from the informal sector to create an opportunity for them to trade amongst each other, equip them with skills to expand their businesses at the same time responding to the Covid-19 pandemic that has claimed millions of lives all over the world, the informal sector being the hardest hit due to the nature of how the sector is organised,” said Ndiweni “The project is also trying to go to market places, raise awareness and monitor adherence to Covid-19 protocols and the project is doing that through deploying what we call market agents so they go around checking if people are wearing masks, people are observing social distancing, if people are keeping their market places clean, if they are washing their hands among other protocols.” Ndiweni added that some of the traders had abandoned their businesses after they were forced to divert their funds to take care of their families due to effects of Covid-19. Meanwhile, a cross border vendor, Pretty Mpofu said the training was beneficial to them. “We learnt a lot and as a cross border trader I used to tell myself that I am a jack of all trades and could hoard anything that I lay my hands on, that made it hard for me to keep track on how my business is going. “I was not even aware of the importance of record keeping in the informal sector and I could use all profits that I would have made,” she said.

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Byo residents fret over imposed council rates

Stakeholders in Bulawayo have accused the local authority of being autocratic after it announced its proposed 2019 second supplementary budget and the 2020 budget despite objections from ratepayers. Residents and other key stakeholders had objected the $507 million second supplementary budget which will see rates increase by 300% with effect from next month. The local authority also proposed a $2.8 billion 2020 national budget which will see rates increase by a further 416%. Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) communications officer Kelebone Khabo, said council must respect the views of residents. Khabo said the proposed rates are unrealistic in the current prevailing economic situation. “The city council is not considering the plight of residents. They need to realise that some of these people are the elderly who now live off pension funds which can barely get them by. Other residents also have other expenses such as food, rentals and fees for their children. ”Recently, there were budget consultative meetings across all suburbs but such action only proves that none of the residents views were adhered to. Most of these council people are just making decisions from a point of privilege. Some are exempted from paying bills by virtue of being employees while some want to ensure they get enough salaries. We cannot have a city run like that,” he said. Khabo said the city council needs to explore other revenue generating avenues which will lessen the burden on citizens. He urged that the council be more transparent in the manner in which funds are used. Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) director Michael Ndiweni, said the proposed budget is a slap in the face of informal traders. “People are already struggling as it is and increasing rates by four folds is too much to take in. This reflects how poor the government of Zimbabwe is at resuscitating the economy. These challenges are not only limited to Bulawayo but are nationwide. “As BVTA we however implore the local authority to talk to people and hear their views rather than impose these rates on them. Vendors are already paying ZW$30 a month and the proposed October rates will see them paying as much as $90. To enable them to meet these, can they at least be allowed to make payment plans,” said Ndiweni. Ward 9 councillor Donaldson Mabuto said the proposed budget will not be affordable for most residents especially those in the high density suburbs. Cllr Mabuto said the council management must be competent enough to learn from other countries on alternative ways of generating revenue than to milk residents. Ward 4 Councillor Silas Chigora noted that although the increase is too much, the local authority still has to deliver quality services. “We need to appreciate the fact that the economy is not conducive for everyone. It needs to be fixed. Our mandate is to provide services and to do so we need money. Either way we need to strike a balance between service delivery and residents paying their rates,” he said. Cllr Chigora said residents in his ward will be paying between ZW$200 and ZW$300 a month which will be hard as most of them are pensioners with limited income. “Residents will not manage; their housing stands are huge in terms of size and they will be paying around $300. We need to take into consideration that salaries have not been increased. Some of these residents are vendors and such a remarkable increase would deeply affect them,” said the councillor.

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Byo residents slam proposed rates hike

  BULAWAYO residents yesterday reacted angrily to proposals by the local authority to increase rates by over 700% under its supplementary and 2020 budgets announced on Monday. Council is proposing to increase tariffs by 300%, effective October in a supplementary budget if given the greenlight by the Local Government ministry at a time when it is owed millions in outstanding payments. A further 416% rates increase will kick in effective January. The council is carrying out water disconnections to recover millions of dollars owed by defaulting ratepayers. “This is another slap from BCC to citizens who are already feeling the pinch of the collapsing economy. What BCC is doing is further indicting government’s incapacity to support local authorities to deliver services to citizens,” said Michael Ndiweni, coordinator of the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA). Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association coordinator Emmanuel Ndlovu said: “This will effectively place affordability of services beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. We foresee dire consequences as people will disown their rates, fail to pay and have their properties attached and more so time when service delivery is at its worst. “We will be engaging council, and make it very clear that this is unacceptable. If we recall, there was a time when council was pushing for a policy not to consult residents on budget issues and I think this is what they wanted to guard against so that there is no input whatsoever from ratepayers.” Ward 25 councillor Mzama Dube who announced the supplementary and 2020 proposed budget, however, said there was no going back on rates hikes, arguing the local authority was only reacting to the harsh inflationary environment. “The BCC, like any other organisation operating in the country has been negatively affected by changes in the monetary policies, exchange rate fluctuations, the country’s runaway inflation, and other pronouncements,” Dube said. “Council is, therefore, exposed to a lot of risks such as litigation for failing to settle debts on time; high production costs as suppliers price their products based on either the parallel market rate or the ruling rate in banking institutions. This development adversely affects service delivery.”

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Vendors and residents reject proposed 2019 BCC budget

  Informal traders and residents have been rejecting Bulawayo City Council proposed 2019 budget at various meetings that were held over the weekend as part of BCC efforts to review of 2018 budget and presentation of the proposed 2019 budget. In the meetings attended by BVTA, vendors and residents felt the proposed budget is not responsive to their needs whilst they pay rates. Contributing in one meeting Mr Aleck Ndlovu, an informal cross border trader said “The BCC capital expenditure budget is silent on provision of vendors and informal traders infrastructure”. Informal traders said the budget did not address their needs such as constructing toilets in market places, provision of running water and responding to burst sewer pipes. The majority residents and vendors rejected the proposed 2019 budget and urged the local authority to revise and include their issues in the budget.  Mr Mthandazo Bhebhe, a BVTA representative present at the meeting said “We pay and Bulawayo City must deliver services”. The consultative meetings are being facilitated by Ward councillors and are expected to end on the 2nd of October 2018, according to a public notice circulated by Bulawayo City Council. The local authority has invited Industry and Commerce, Civil Society Organizations, Bulawayo Informal Traders, Media and Residents Associations to a public consultative meeting on 02 October 2018 from 0900hrs – 1200hrs at Small City Hall.

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