Harare Council fires 3 000 workers

By Innocent Ruwende

HARARE – At least 3 000 Harare City Council workers will receive their letters of termination of contract on three months’ notice today in line with the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing employers to sack employees on that basis.

The joint Human Resources and General Purposes Committee and the Finance and Development Committee arrived at the decision to trim the council workforce after a special meeting on Monday evening.

Deputy mayor Thomas Muzuva ratified the position to avoid it going to full council .

“We arrived at that position during a special meeting we carried out on Monday which was chaired by Finance and Development Committee chairperson Councillor Panganai Charumbira,” said a councillor who attended the meeting.

“We could not wait to call for a full council meeting to endorse the position, so deputy mayor Muzuva signed the position for it to be binding.

“Council officials are now in the process of coming up with the modalities. They should come up with a plan on who should go first, but the letters will be given to workers tomorrow (today).”

Council will be targeting employees who were absconding duty, those with court cases, employees who are not on the city council structure and those whose roles are duplicated.

“The main issue which led council to come to that decision is that most of the city’s resources were being channelled towards paying salaries at the expense of service delivery,” said another councillor.

“We also have some employees whose positions have become redundant.”

The city’s human capital director Dr Cainos Chingombe could not be drawn to divulge details as he said he was still locked in a meeting late last night.

“I will update you once we have finished deliberations,” he said.

Sources said city officials were now identifying the candidates whose contracts would be terminated and they were also waiting for the arrival of mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni who was out of the country.

Mr Manyenyeni was expected to arrive last night.

Clr Muzuva, Clr Panganayi and Human Resources and General Purposes Committee chairperson Clr Wellington Chikombo could not be reached for comment, with council officials saying they were out of town attending to the city’s business.

Last year, the city sent packing a total of 1 190 ordinary employees, 12 directors and some middle managers.

Remuneration was consuming more than half of Harare’s revenue until Government directed a pay cut for all local authorities and parastatal bosses.

Harare councillors recently approved the trimming of the number of council directors, reducing the complement of middle managers and the retrenchment of the 1 190 workers.

The city has six directors, 45 middle managers and an overall workforce of 6 348. The Herald