Harare City Council plans to  use ZESA Holdings’ billing system to recover about $1 billion the local authority is owed by ratepayers.

If the plan is approved, council will gradually recover the money every time indebted ratepayers purchase electricity tokens from the power utility.

The local authority also intends to introduce prepaid water meters across the city to complement the proposed ZESA deal.

Speaking on the side-lines of a Special council meeting on Monday, Harare town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said council has devised a cocktail of measures to recover its debt.

“We are owed a lot of money and we want to devise new ways of recovering that debt. Among the possibilities is that we may engage ZESA so that when somebody pays for electricity there is a certain percentage that goes towards our debt.

“You know how ZESA has done it before to recover what they are owed,” he said.

Eng Chisango said if the city fails to reach an agreement with ZESA, it will seek to recover its debt through its own prepaid meter system.

More details to follow . . .