Council turns to individuals in K700m recovery campaign

After pouncing on institutions that owed Mzuzu City Council (MCC) part of its K700million city rates bill, the council is strategising on how it can recover its the same from individuals.

In March this year, the council launched a campaign to collect outstanding city rates arrears from all defaulters in the city. The campaign first targeted institutions and involved sealing premises of defaulters.

In an interview on Tuesday, the council’s lawyer Victor Gondwe said he reminded city developers to pay their rates by next week or risk closure of their business premises.

He said the council recovered a bigger part of the money but it is now targeting individuals.

Gondwe said MCC will use the same strategy of sealing buildings.

“The major defaulters were mostly institutions and the council has managed to collect 70 percent of the money. We now intend to embark on phase two of the exercise which will target individuals,” he said.

The council has for years been struggling financially and has been failing to carry out various operations. Collecting money from the defaulters will help the council run a number of activities including settling debts.

Mzuzu City mayor William Mkandawire said the situation has crippled some of the council’s operations such as paying workers’ monthly salaries, and maintaining its vehicles. n