Town House salary meeting set for today

Municipal Reporter
A meeting to get a full salary schedule showing how much Harare City Council executives earn every month failed to produce results after it emerged that the bearer of the contracts was out of the country.Harare Mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni, Ward 28 councillor Wellington Chikombo, Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi had gathered for the meeting only to learn that that the human resources manager, Dr Kainos Chingombe, was not available. The meeting is now scheduled for today.

Some councillors have accused council officials of stonewalling their efforts to get the full salary schedule.

Clr Chikombo, who was mandated to interrogate the executive payroll, yesterday said: “We met on Tuesday but we are going to finalise the issue on Thursday. If we fail to come up with tangible results we are going to step up measures,” he said.

Mayor Manyenyeni confirmed the position saying the meeting was postponed because of the absence of the human resources manager.
Some councillors yesterday accused council officials of stonewalling their efforts to get the full salary schedule.

There have been claims that the city’s 15 heads of department and 49 managers are gobbling over US$600 000 in salaries and allowances monthly with some top managers reportedly earning more than US$12 000, including allowances, while residents continue to complain about poor service delivery.

Mayor Manyenyeni and Dr Mahachi are part of the team that should establish how much each top manager is earning and report back to the next full council this month.

Councillors also want some of the city departments which have dual leadership, to be streamlined. The resolution has, however, met stiff resistance from top management.

The Department of Health is said to have two directors – Dr Prosper Chonzi and Dr Stanley Mungofa – drawing almost similar salaries and allowances.

The Department of Public Safety is now a standalone unit with its own director when it used to fall under the Chamber Secretary.
The dismissal of City Treasurer Mr Misheck Mubvumbi, who was subsequently reinstated, forced the local authority to create a new department of business development to accommodate Mr Cosmos Zvikaramba.