Zimpapers Logo

Blessings Chidakwa

Municipal Reporter

While Harare City Council is unable to pay annual bonuses and December salaries to its staff, reports are surfacing that salaries and acting allowances are being paid to multiple managers for the same post, increasing pressure on the council finances and cash flows.

At the same time, the conflicts within opposition ranks, as all Harare councillors were elected on MDC-Alliance tickets, plus the number of senior councillors and officials now on remand and facing trial on corruption-related charges in connection with land allocations, means that it is often difficult to find out just who is running what.

This starts at the very top with an acting mayor loyal to the MDC-A having replaced two successive mayors loyal to the MDC-T.

Council workers, many of whom are now on strike since they are yet to be paid, have approached the Government to intervene over both the lack of pay and the lack of personal protective equipment many need for their duties.

The workers have downed tools for at least a month now and no sewer bursts or blockages in Harare are being attended to, with raw sewage left flowing in streets due to the strike.

In a joint letter written by the Harare Municipal Workers Union (HMWU), Zimbabwe Urban Councils Workers Union (ZUCWU) and Zimbabwe Allied Municipalities Workers Union, the workers appealed for urgent mediation.

The letter is referenced “request for your urgent intervention in the dysfunctional and collapsing city of Harare which no longer respects the employees right to fair labour standards of remuneration, health and wellness, accommodation, social justice and democracy at workplace”.

“We are writing this letter with a heavy heart over the events in the City of Harare. As the employees of council we are now stuck between a hard place and a hard rock,” said Mr Cosmas Bungu, head of the joint workers committees. “Workers have not been paid their 2020 November bonuses and December salaries.”

Mr Bungu said most employees of the city were part of the essential services as declared by the Government in the Covid-19 regulations, but have not been properly equipped.

“Employees have not been getting personal protective equipment and employees are now compounded with these challenges.

“Employees are now exposed to Covid-19 while on the other hand they have not been paid their 2020 bonus salaries,” he said.

Mr Bungu said this is in contravention of the Constitution, which states that every person has a right to fair and safe labour practices and standards.

He said it also states that employees should be paid fair and reasonable wages.

In an interview over the state of affairs for workers, acting Harare Mayor, Councillor Stewart Mutizwa, initially said while the council was in the process of securing protective equipment, the issue was being blown out of proportion.

The actual row over the PPE did explode when the council could not pay the annual bonus or December salaries.

“The December salaries will be paid soon,” said Mr Mutizwa.

“We were slowed down by the garnishee order which has since been lifted, and we are now working on raising the funds to extinguish the arrears.”

The council owe Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (zimra) vast sums in tax payments, mainly the PAYE it had been deducting from workers pay and which is supposed to be forwarded within a week or two of the deduction, and some VAT which is charged on some council services, such as parking charges.

zimra in the end garnished the council’s bank accounts.

But within the council the mess of multiple suspensions and opposition political infighting is distracting attention from solving the issues, adding to costs and causing more confusion.

At the top, the office of the mayor is being run by MDC-T Cllr Luckson Mukunguma and MDC-Alliance Cllr Mutizwa.

Cllr Mukunguma is technically suspended since he is facing corruption-related charges, but reportedly is reluctant to leave the post to Cllr Mutizwa, who is legally the acting mayor.

In the town clerk’s office, the centre of the administration, the council is paying salaries, benefits or acting allowances for three people: Engineer Hosiah Chisango, Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama and allegedly Mrs Josephine Ncube, who has been locked in a legal wrangle with the council for years after her suspension.

Among other critical positions were the council is footing bills for two people occupying the same posts are that of the human capital development and district offices, including one in Warren Park.

The city’s finance director Mr Stanely Ndemera refused to be drawn into the matter.

However, a joint letter written by Harare City Council workers unions representatives addressed to Local Government and Public Works dated January 21, 2021 confirmed the anomaly.

“As employees we no longer know who to talk to in the city administration,” said Mr Bungu.

“Now there are two mayors running the city, two town clerks and two acting human resources directors in office, council is failing to make resolutions that are binding due to lack of quorum and continuous bickering from competing factions.

“This is detrimental to the proper functioning of the city since currently there is no chain of command at the moment.”

A councillor who spoke on condition of anonymity said the city was losing the large chunk of money earmarked for service delivery in paying salaries.

“Ratepayers’ money that should be channelled to service delivery is being wasted on footing bills for executives including some who no longer serve the council,” he said.

“Mrs Ncube is one such a person who has been on council’s payroll as an acting town clerk while fighting her suspension even after the post was occupied by a substantive head.”

The councillor said Mrs Ncube was negotiating with the local authority for an exit package.

“As of the mayoral office it’s just politics at play between Mr Nelson Chamisa’s councillors who somehow don’t want Cllr Mukunguma to take the reigns as they feel betrayed after he jumped ship to Mr Douglas Mwonzora’s camp,” he said.

“On the other hand, Cllr Mukunguma is pulling all the strings so that he runs the city and doesn’t want to concede defeat to Cllr Mutizwa a sympathiser to Mr Chamisa.”

Eng Chisango was arrested and is out on bail, which restricts him from being at council premises, leaving Eng Chawatama as the acting town clerk.

Cllr Mukunguma was first appointed mayor when the incumbent Jacob Mafume was arrested on corruption-related charges before he himself was also arrested and granted bail.

He was suspended by the Government paving way for the election of Cllr Mutizwa as acting mayor.