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Chombo defends councils bosses hefty salaries

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Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo has defended the massive salaries and hefty perks that local authorities directors are getting, saying the payment justified their “hard work”. Most directors at city and town councils around Zimbabwe earn monthly salaries ranging between $10 000 and $15 000 and enjoy hefty perks. Residents raised alarm when these incomes […]

Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo has defended the massive salaries and hefty perks that local authorities directors are getting, saying the payment justified their “hard work”.

Most directors at city and town councils around Zimbabwe earn monthly salaries ranging between $10 000 and $15 000 and enjoy hefty perks.

Residents raised alarm when these incomes were exposed in the media, describing them as “obscene and exploitative” especially given the average Zimbabwean from whom these salaries were drawn earns as little as $100 per month.

When Chombo was asked to confirm these earnings at a Press conference in Harare this week, he said there was nothing wrong with the salaries especially when the councils could afford and the directors were doing a good job.

“You cannot run a city like Harare with underpaid managers,” Chombo said. “You cannot be paid for doing nothing and if the City of Harare has the money to pay and the city managers are doing wonders, why not pay more?”

He said a committee had been put in place to look into the allegations that city managers getting “obscene salaries and perks”.

Councillors this week demanded to see the contracts of the managers to find out if indeed they were getting hefty perks as reported in the media.

The chairman of the human resources committee, Panganayi Charumbira, challenged the directors to produce their contracts as they were working for a public entity.

“We want (to see) the contracts of directors. They have blundered and are still in council and getting a lot. We should fire people. We don’t want to victimise them, but if we want something, give us,” he said.

“This is a public entity and why should we hide public information?” Charumbira said.

However, Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said the matter had to be dealt with in a confidential manner.

“The document which is ready is the human resources audit,” the mayor said. “As far as the contracts are concerned, it (the issue) has to be dealt with with the confidentiality it deserves,” Masunda said.

Councillor Paula Macharangwanda said: “We want to know how much these people are getting. Charumbira is under pressure from other councillors who now think he was silenced.”

Councillor Friday Mleya said it was now time to show the public how much the directors were getting and council should come clean on the matter.

While the council managers are reportedly getting hefty perks on time every month for the past two years, city workers earn as little as $100 and struggle to get that money in time.