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Innocent Ruwende: Municipal Reporter
Harare’s mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni has said his council is burdened with an unsustainable wage bill, with almost every worker being overpaid compared to the prevailing salaries on the market.He said the wage bill needed to be drastically reduced if the city was to prioritise service delivery. Mr Manyenyeni said this as it emerged that out of the council’s $13 million monthly revenue collection, $9 million goes towards salaries.
Government has been battling with city bosses for many years to cut their huge salaries, which take a big chunk of funds that should go towards service delivery.
Speaking at a Press conference on the decentralisation of council services to district level recently, Mr Manyenyeni said the right sizing of the city’s wage bill was critical if council was to move forward.
“We are burdened with a heavy wage bill,” he said. “The management tends to take the limelight because they are politically more sellable, but the reality with council is that almost every job is overpaid compared to the market rates.
“That is why we have got this crisis. It is easy to focus and talk about the executives, but if we really look at it, it is the entire wage bill that needs review. The executives account for maybe three percent of the total wage bill. This tells you that even if we stop paying them, we still have a huge bill to contend with because the other 97 percent applies to the rest of our work force.”
Mr Manyenyeni said council had already moved towards a salary benchmarking exercise and the tender would be closed this week.
“The biggest victims of our current pay structure are the workers themselves,” he said. “We are running six to seven months behind (in paying salaries) simply because there is a direct relationship between our level of payment and our ability to pay on time.
“The next casualty is service delivery. If out of $13 million we put $9 million into salaries, $2,5 million into water treatment chemicals, then we are in the business of paying salaries. That is what it tells us because the figures weigh heavily into salaries.”
On decentralisation, Mr Manyenyeni said Harare had been divided into eight zones, which will be led by a chief administration officer under whose command will be all service delivery staff. The central business district, Mbare and Sunningdale will form Zone 1, while Hatfield and Waterfalls will fall under Zone 2, Highfield, Glen Norah and Hopley (Zone 3), Budiriro, Glen View, Mufakose and Marimba (Zone 4)
The other zones are Kambuzuma, Kuwadzana and Dzivarasekwa (Zone 5), Mabelreign, Marlborough, Warren Park and Mt Pleasant (Zone 6), Borrowdale, Hatcliffe, Greendale and Highlands (Zone 7) and Tafara, Mabvuku and Caledonia (Zone 8).
Each zone will have its own plant and equipment and will devise its own work programmes that align to the city’s vision.
The services to be offered at the local level include water and sewer services, road maintenance, public lighting, cleaning services, town planning and development control, building inspectorate services, health and licensing services, housing, education and social services, parks and cemeteries and revenue collection and enforcement of by-laws.
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