Harare City Council Is Going Paperless And 30 000 Residents Have Joined The Cause

Harare city council introduced a method of notifying customers on bill payments through a digital format called Electronic bill (E billing) and they have been encouraging the public to register. The bill was introduced last year in November and so far they have managed to get 30 000 residents to register on e-billing.

The city of Harare E billing makes it easier for residents to have quick access to their bills or if one needs the copy as proof of residence. Imagine having to go home and ask for a hard copy proof of residence which might take time to come by, one can now just click on line and have access to the proof of residence, easy right? It seems city council is indeed working towards becoming a world class city by 2025.

You know it is refreshing to know that you don’t have to continuously check your letter box for bills from the city council, you now get to be notified by email or whats App as soon as the new bill is available. This seems good. City council might be improving service delivery.

Harare corporate communications manager Mr Michael Chideme encouraged more residents to register saying e bills were convenient, user friendly and definitely secure. He also confirmed that E-bills would soon replace the old system of sending bills in the form of letters after all residents were registered on their data base.

He went on to explain about the bill:

We have begun sending e-bills to our customers, this is in line with our modernization and vision of becoming a world class city by 2025. Customers can now receive their bills on Whats App and e-mail.

So far, close to 30 000 people are receiving E-bills. What has improved is the efficiency in bill receipt by residents, who can now also pay their bills from where ever they may be through our E-bill payment platform on our website and through the other payment platform.

Chideme said property owners were encouraged to submit their email addresses and phone numbers to the city council offices to improve revenue collection.

City council has been struggling to pay their employees for six months and they say its because residents have defaulted on payments of bills. Is this true though? Is this not an excuse? City council bosses are being paid ridiculous salaries hence the struggle to pay their employees right?. Wouldn’t it be easier for them to pay their employees if they slashed the ridiculous salaries though? Yes, residents could owe the council a lot of money but spending the money should at least be looked into to avoid cases like these of defaulting on salary payments.

With this new initiative, does it mean payments will now be made on time? Is there a way that comes with e billing that will make residents pay their bills on time? And if not does that mean a person will be summoned with lots and lots of emails?