The Sunday Mail
Harare City Council has from last month been attaching property from residents and companies with unsettled bills exceeding US$300 in a bid to recover US$140 million — which is part of at least U$380 million — it is owed.
The blitz is a gear up from water disconnections for defaulters owing more than US$100, which have been ongoing since August.
Some affected residents say council has not given them sufficient time to respond to legal processes to attach property.
According to the law, a letter of final demand to settle a debt is issued before one receives summons. If a debtor fails to respond to the letter of final demand, then summons are sent.
Where defaulters fail to respond to summonses within seven days, either by making a payment or applying for a payment plan, the creditor can apply for a default judgment and a warrant of execution of property is issued.
Once the warrant of execution is granted and registered, the Messenger of Court delivers the letter of attachment and the defaulter is given seven days to respond.
If the defaulter fails to respond, the Messenger of Court can attach property to the value of the debt.
Harare resident Mr Malcom Kapumho of Mufakose alleges he received a warrant to attach property over a US$385 debt and within three days the Messenger of Court was at his house to attach property.
“They attached a refrigerator and a television set, but I got my property back after paying US$600 which included penalties.”
Harare City Council principal commercial and customer services director, Mr Luke Mwaziya, said due process was being followed.
“It is true that we are attaching property but we have not received cases of that nature (where residents are not given legal space to respond). Before property is attached, residents are given more than a month to respond but the problem is most residents do not take the notices seriously,” he said.
Harare Residents Trust spokesperson Ms Esther Chimanikire said the council should come up with “reasonable measures” to have debts settled.
“We encourage residents to immediately respond when they are issued with summons, but we have also realized that there is a short space of time between date of delivery of summons and date of attachment such that many times, residents will not have enough time to respond,” she said.
Harare City Council recently said it had issued 4 000 summonses and 1 000 warrants to attach defaulters’ property.
