Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda says the solution to the local authority’s perennial labour disputes was to “right size” its staff complement and do away with workers who were employed on political grounds or grounds of nepotism.
Harare city employees are on a “No pay, No work” industrial action that threatens to cripple the capital city’s service delivery and other functions.
Harare has a bloated workforce of around 10 500 employees a big number of which is said to be made up of ghost workers.
A human resources audit conducted last year recommended that the city should operate with at most 6 500 workers. Most of the extra 4 000 plus wage takers in council were alleged beneficiaries of Zanu PF politics of patronage.
“The . . . solution is to right size the complement of employees at all levels in order to end up with a lean and mean team, shorn of those persons who were employed for reasons which are not remotely connected with competence,” mayor Masunda said.
He said the city also needed to redouble efforts to collect millions of dollars in revenue owed by the government, companies and individuals.
“The lasting solution is twofold. We have to redouble our efforts to collect the sum of $150 million owed to the city by various debtors,” he said. He said industry and commerce owed the city $70 million, the government $50 million and individual residents $30 million.
The mayor said his council was making efforts to avert disastrous consequences of the ongoing job action.
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“Every effort is being made to mobilise the requisite financial resources to enable the city to fulfill its obligations to employees,” he said.
