Council slashes salaries

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
GWANDA Town Council has reduced its wage bill after reviewing downwards top managers’ salaries. The highest paid manager now takes home a salary of about $3,000, according to the Town Clerk, Priscilla Nkala. She said as the town clerk, she has never earned a monthly salary of $18,000 as earlier published.

Nkala said her contract was different from that of her predecessor, Gilbert Mlilo.

“My contract is different. The contract is silent on my take home,” she said.

Nkala, who is the town’s former chamber secretary, denied disclosing how much she had been earning since she took over as the town clerk last year following Mlilo’s retirement last May.

Mlilo’s salary was pegged at about $18,000, inclusive of allowances. Recently, Gwanda Town adopted a new salary structure slashing salaries of its workers including management. The town clerk who is the highest paid employee earns about $3,000 while the salary of the lowest paid work is pegged at around $400.

Before the salary cut, the salary of an ordinary truck driver was pegged at about $1,500.

Salaries used to account for about 75 percent of the council’s revenue. Local government regulations stipulate that salaries should account for just 30 percent of total revenue so that 70 percent goes towards service delivery.

Nkala revealed that Gwanda Municipality was the only local authority that had implemented a salary cut.

The salary cut was in line with local government regulations. The adopted new salary structure comes as a relief to residents who have been concerned about high salaries earned by workers at the expense of service delivery. The workers welcomed the move to review salaries downwards as the council was struggling to pay the high salaries.

“It’s better to earn a low salary which you get at the end of the month than a high salary that you’ll never receive,” said a worker.

Gwanda Municipality which collects a minimum revenue of about $160,000 a month, owes workers four months salary.