Zimbabwe: Harare City Council Officials Reluctant to Take Pay Cuts

DESPITE public scrutiny, senior Harare City Council officials are still earning hefty salaries, which negatively impacts service delivery in the capital.

Senior officials at the Harare City Council are taking a large chunk of the revenues received by the Municipality through salaries.

Earlier this year a Commission of Inquiry which was probing the operations of the Council, heard that half a million is spent on the salaries of senior officials at Town House.

Despite promises by Mafume to review downward the salaries, officials at the Town House are still earning big.

Speaking at a recent Council meeting, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume was left fuming over the lackadaisical approach in downgrading the salaries.

"Secret salaries, secret interviews, secret things are not procedural. I don't know where you get these things. We need you to get the reports. I told you the last time, please decrease these salaries.

"You will get quicker results, and people started reasoning like lawyers in this meeting. It is simple, you freeze these salaries. You serve a deadline, you then agree on a ceiling of the maximum salaries, and you will know that in five days, you will come up with an agreement. He who then does not agree with us can take us to court or wherever they want," said Mafume.

The Mafume-led City Council has been under fire for failing to deliver basic services to the residents while the senior officials are gobbling funds in salaries.

Harare City Council has blamed the volatile currency for the woes in the capital but remains mum on the hefty packages of its officials.

"Every time I am being asked on Twitter and everywhere about where we stand with the issue of salaries. I have no answer but we spoke to them a month ago. Let us cut those salaries and see," said Mafume further.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.