The Sunday Mail
The Harare City Council is being haunted by lease agreements entered into with some property owners during the colonial era amid revelations sports clubs in the capital city are paying rates of US$1 annually.
The Sunday Mail has established that colonial Salisbury Council authorities signed 99-year lease agreements running to 2057 with sports clubs to pay that little in rates.
Despite paying just US$1, these same clubs charge around US$330 for conferences and cocktails, while weddings and parties attract a minimum US$1 500.
The facilities record an average five bookings weekly for various functions.
Harare City Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said: “These leases were given to sports clubs when we were still under colonial rule and for a long time it (the annual rates) was never looked into. We are in the process of correcting these leases because it does not really make sense for a place which hosts big events to pay such small amounts of money.”
Urban planning expert Mr Percy Toriro said while there were legal issues attached to the leases, there was room to amend them.
“These leases can be corrected legally. What is needed is for people to sit down, negotiate and come up with realistic rates because honestly this does not make sense,” he said.
Residents in high-density suburbs pay Harare City Council an average US$30 in rates monthly. Harare Residents Association chair Mr Precious Shumba said it was ironic that council was trying to use a 1962 colonial by-law to prohibit residents from keeping poultry at residential premises when serious issues of revenue collection were not being addressed.
