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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Harare City Council was entitled to terminate contracts of employment for its three former top executive directors who had gone past the normal age of retirement, the High Court has ruled.
Mr Dombo Chibanda former director for Waste Management, Mr Pingo Wilbroad Kandororo and Mr John Kandwe — had their contracts of employment terminated on the grounds that they attained the age of 60 years, the normal age of retirement for council workers.
The three took the council to the High Court challenging the decision.
They argued that having attained 60 years of age without being retired, they had a legitimate expectation that they could be retired at the age of 65.
But Justice Joseph Martin Mafusire, ruled last week the application by Messrs Chibanda, Kandororo and Kandwe had no merit.
He said the three having gone past the normal age of retirement, they were now serving at the pleasure of the employer.
“The employer was entitled to dispense with their services at any time,” said Justice Mafusire.
The judge even said the three months’ notice of termination was a reasonable period to facilitate the disengagement considering the trio’s lengthy service.
“At any rate, such a period was consummate with the first applicant’s (Mr Chibanda) contract of employment,” said Justice Mafusire.
“In all cases, it was in accordance with Section 12 (4) of the Labour Act Cap: 28:01 and the decision of the Supreme Court in Don Nyamande and Another vs Zuva Petroleum (Private) Limited.”
In the Zuva case, the Supreme Court ruled on July 17 this year that employers can fire workers on three months’ notice, without giving them severance packages.
The land mark ruling triggered widespread job losses countrywide as more than 25 000 workers were fired.
This prompted the Government to intervene and halt the job losses by amending the Labour Act to do away with the common law position, which companies facing liquidity crunch had taken advantage of, as a cost-cutting measure.
MMessrs Chibanda, Kandororo and Kandwe were among the top directors that were retired last year in a bid to cut the council’s bloated wage bill in line with a council resolution and Government directives.
The rationalisation exercise was meant to improve cost efficiency and cut down on bureaucracy.
Council has been failing to pay salaries for its bloated workforce of 9000 and wants to reduce the numbers by at least 3000.
For efficiency in the service delivery council needs to cut the wage bill to 30 percent of total revenue as per Government directive.
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