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Municipal Reporter
The financially hamstrung Harare City Council is set to blow over US$15 million by rehiring some of the employees it retired earlier this year to fill critical posts that fell vacant following the rationalisation.
The retirees will be given a one-year, fixed performance-based contract, while the city looks for suitable replacements.
Council had more than 1 300 pensionable workers on its books, most of whom were retired as a cost-cutting measure.
The city’s human capital and public safety director Dr Kainos Chingombe told the Human Resource and General Committee on August 25 this year that he had developed a framework to guide the rehiring of the retirees.
“The human capital and public safety director (Dr Chingombe) reported that a number of positions had become vacant as a result of the recent rationalisation process.
“However, a process of identifying critical and non-critical positions had been undertaken leading to the need to rehire some of the retired staff who had critical skills that would enhance service delivery in council,” read part of the committee’s minutes.
According to the proposals, contracts of employment for retired former employees should be renewed only when the committee was satisfied that a succession plan was not ready and that no successor had been identified and groomed or the incumbent retiree held critical expertise which no potential successor had at that time.
Every holder of a critical position in council from the Town Clerk downwards will be expected to groom a potential successor and Dr Chingombe will report on a quarterly basis on the progress on formulation of a succession plan in council.
During the discussion, the committee also noted that executive personnel had been excluded from the scope of agreement on the grounds that the re-employment guidelines and conditions for such personnel were already in place.
The committee resolved that the proposals be incorporated in the re-employment guideline and conditions for retired employees.
The city has already re-engaged Harare Water director Eng Christopher Zvobgo, for possessing critical skills while the director of works, Eng Phillip Pfukwa, has been retained.
Harare collapsed several departments, including housing and community services and the Chamber Secretary’s Office, which formed corporate services, while engineering services, waste management and urban planning now fall under the Department of Works.
The new structure will comprise the departments of Corporate Services, Finance, Health, Department of Human Resources and Public Safety and Works.
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