Harare City finance director in trouble

Sunday Mail Reporter
HARARE City Council finance director, Mr Justin Mandizha has come under fire from councillors and workers who are blaming him for failing to manage finances, thereby resulting in a backlog of five months for the workers’ salaries.
The matter was discussed at a special full council meeting at Town House on Thursday.
Councillors expressed concern over Mr Mandizha’s failure to meet his targets of reducing the salary backlog.
When he was appointed finance director in September 2015, council owed workers one month’s salary but that has since ballooned to five months, prompting workers to threaten a sit-in next week.
Human resources and general purposes committee chairperson, Councillor Wellington Chikombo said the backlog points to a leadership crisis at council. “There is leadership crisis and to make matters worse, there is no communication between bosses and subordinates. This is resulting in low morale among employees. The finance director (Mr Mandizha) must meet his targets,” said Clr Chikombo.
Informal sector chairperson, Clr Wilton Njanjasi said resources should be well managed to ensure that workers are paid.
Harare Workers’ Union chairperson Cosmas Bungu said the workers’ representatives met acting Town Clerk Mrs Josephine Ncube on Wednesday to air their grievances.
He said council is failing to pay salaries despite collecting an average of US$15 million per month.
“If the managers are failing to prioritise and keep the city running, they must step down with immediate effect,” said Mr Bungu.
“Employees will be forced to stage a sit-in because they simply don’t have the resources to report for duty daily. That will be a disaster because clinics, water works and refuse collection will be grounded. The city will be doomed,” Mr Bungu said.
Mr Mandizha has been on probation for the past six months.
When contacted for comment, Mr Mandizha referred all questions to council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme. However, Mr Chideme only confirmed that the matter had been discussed at a special full council meeting but could not be drawn to divulge further details.