Residents and other ratepayers of Marondera owe the municipality more than ZiG60 million and council is now keen to recover the money which will be directed towards improving service delivery, the town's public relations officer, Mr Kudakwashe Tapfumaneyi, said in an interview.

The council was owed ZiG60 487 517.

"Marondera residents, the business community and other ratepayers must play their part by paying their dues. That helps us, as the local authority, to deliver efficient services that satisfy all parties concerned. The money which we are owed has been compromising our ability to provide essential services like water, garbage collection and sanitation," Mr Tapfumaneyi said.

Efforts were being made to recover the debt and ensure service delivery was not compromised.

"Council is implementing a raft of measures to recover what it is owed by several debtors. Council is sending out bill payment reminders via SMS and bill payment fliers as a means to encourage ratepayers to settle their bills.

"Through its debt collection office, council has been issuing overdue reminders to debtors to remind them to service their accounts. Debtors are also being encouraged to enter into payment plan arrangements with the debt collection office to pay off their debts.

"Council has set up call centres through which ratepayers in arrears may enquire on how they may go about settling their overdue accounts. Council has been enforcing the closure of operations for some business entities in arrears as a means to encourage them to pay.

"In instances in which debtors do not respond to the cited measures, council will issue letters of demand before pursuing litigation through the issuance of summons in order to recover the money it is owed but this is a last resort measure.

"Council operates on the premise of positive engagement with a view to maintaining lifelong relationships with all stakeholders. To augment its debt collection capacity council recently recruited debt collection assistants to assist with debt recovery," Mr Tapfumaneyi said.

Meanwhile, the municipality will soon start allocating residential stands to the Elmwood beneficiaries.

The 480ha of Elmswood area will have mixed density, and those who are offer letter holders, recently held a meeting with council officials at Rudhaka stadium where they were informed of the latest developments.