Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
Harare Mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume, says the country’s largest city’s masterplan is almost complete.
In his opening remarks at the 1944th ordinary council meeting at townhouse last week, Cllr Mafume said the groundwork has been done.
“That will inform the planning issues bedevilling the city and allow us to bring on board a lot of the residents that are not yet recognised and also to deal with the conflict of use that is currently happening between various stakeholders within our city,” he said.
Cllr Mafume said the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was also now in place.
“They have finished some of the modules and they were waiting for training. They were just waiting for the purchase of computers,” he said.
“They have been purchased and will be delivered next week (this week). So it means the training of our officers will begin so that we will trace the missing money that was spoken about by the auditor general. Also we will be able to close the gaps that are being created by the super users and so forth, so that we can get the revenue in place and the ERP in place.”
Cllr Mafume said the council is still behind on salaries.
“We are one month or two, depending on which currency you are using. And we are in discussions with our financial institutions, with our ministry, so that it becomes automatic going forward that at the end of the month, they are beginning to be paid, and we will deal with the arrears.
“So we are cognisant of the fact that we need to be able to pay our salaries on time,” he said.
Cllr Mafume said the council has a workforce of around 10 000 people.
“The economy of the city depends on those people being paid. And our statutory obligations, I think we have improved on that,” he said.
“We have also embarked on fiscalisation to avoid being penalised by Zimra and we are marginally better.
“In the old days, we used to be garnished, but we are now, subject to verification, in a good place in terms of our Zimra, our NSSA and our various statutory obligations as a city.
“And once we get those basics right, it will then be easier to get our procurement and get our service delivery done and well.”
