By Costa Nkomo
At a time when the Harare City Council is struggling to provide basic services to its residents – from uncollected refuse and perennial sewage problems to non-functional traffic lights and a failure to deliver safe drinking water – it has emerged that the council’s top management is essentially bleeding the city dry by awarding themselves exorbitant salaries.
During his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry, led by Retired Judge Justice Maphios Cheda, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume revealed that the council’s executive is collectively pocketing half a million US dollars in salaries each month.
The Town Clerk, he stated, is earning a staggering US$27,000.
“I asked the Human Resources director for a report on salaries,” Mafume testified. “He refused to give it to me, saying it was an instruction from the Town Clerk. He then showed me the document in confidence, and from what I saw, the highest-paid executive is receiving US$27,000.”
Mafume added that the lowest-paid member of the executive is taking home a handsome US$15,000.
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Commission lead evidence Thabani Mpofu asked Mafume to confirm that these hefty salaries did not include any additional benefits, to which Mafume replied in the affirmative, adding that with other perks factored in, the total remuneration would likely tip the scales at over US$30,000.
Justice Cheda then probed Mafume further, questioning why he seemed to lack the authority to curb the lavish spending of the executive, to which he responded that executives are always quick to remind him that he is not an executive mayor and therefore his power is limited.
Justice Cheda further inquired about the current relationship between the City Council executive and the councillors, which Mafume described as “not harmonious.”
Mafume was also grilled about the proliferation of service stations in residential areas, some of which Harare City Council’s Town Planning Director, Samuel Nyabeza, has pledged to demolish because they pose serious safety issues to residents.
He was further taken to task over the non-functional traffic lights in Harare, which have contributed significantly to traffic accidents, some of which have tragically claimed lives.
