(HERALD) Strike paralyses council

Strike paralyses council
By Peter Matambanadzo
Monday, 09 May 2011 21:05

HARARE City Council is facing a se-rious liquidity crunch that has seen it failing to pay its bloated work force on time over a long period now, The He-rald has learnt.
This has resulted in workers in critical departments staging sit-ins each time council delays in paying them with severe impact on service deli-very.

The city employs in excess of 10 000 workers who gobble up to 70 percent of revenue generated on salaries and allowances. Its monthly staff costs are believed to be about US$7,5 million against a revenue of slightly over US$10 million.

Since late last year, council workers have been getting their salaries late into the middle of the next month. In a bid to ameliorate the salary challenges, management has been pushing for an increase in tariffs, which the Government shot down arguing this was unfair for the ratepayers who were being short-changed in terms of service delivery.

However, as delays over payment persist, service delivery in Harare has been paralysed.

Refuse has gone for more than a week without being collected and they have not been attending to sewer burst pipes and water leakages for some time now.
There are growing fears that there might be an outbreak of water borne diseases in high-density suburbs.

A highly-placed source yesterday said the city council - which was saddled with a huge salary bill - was currently experiencing cash flow challenges.
"The City of Harare is facing a severe liquidity crunch and this is also being faced by many companies who are failing to pay salaries on time.

"This is a national problem that needs a lasting solution," the source said.
Harare Municipal Workers' Union members began their protest against council management over failure to pay them in time a week ago.

According to a letter to the town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi last week, the workers demanded immediate redress or had no option, but to proceed with litigation against the employer.

In the letter to council, the workers were concerned with the continuous late payment of salaries and there was need to come up with a long lasting strategy on salary payment.

The workers also want council to change their pay date from the 30th to the 15th of every month in line with the city's billing and revenue collection regime.

The workers also argued that council stopped a blitz last year on revenue collection but the exercise had improved revenue collection.

The workers said following the blitz council collected US$12 million in September last year, US$12,7 million (October), US$14, 7 million (November) and US$13,5 million (December).

However, Dr Mahachi yesterday played down the workers' protest although investigations by The Herald revealed that the workers were just sitting and not attending to any faults and also stopped collecting refuse.

The evidence is so clear in the high-density areas where uncollected refuse is strewn everywhere on the streets and open spaces.

Said Dr Mahachi: "There is no strike. We are collecting refuse in most areas but what we have observed is that refuse is piling up again as a result of illegal dumping."
He said there was urgent need to educate the public on the importance of using garbage bins rather than to dump in open areas.

"We need to educate our people as most of our trucks are coming back with little garbage as people have resorted to dumping at illegal dumpsites which we previously cleared," he said.

Dr Mahachi said council had equipment to maintain sewer leakages.
"We do have adequate equipment and we do respond to any faults within 24 hours," he said.

National Employment Council for the Harare Municipal Undertaking chairman, Mr Rodgers Matsikidze, said they were working hard to resolve the salary dispute.

"We have met with council management today (yesterday) and we are working on coming up with a long lasting solution to the problem not only of salaries but of both salaries and service delivery," Mr Matsikidze said.

He said the city was facing a severe challenge of revenue inflow and was owed millions of dollars and there was a need to address this issue.
Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda could not be reached for comment but recently said the city was owed over US$150 million by residents, business and Government departments and institutions in unpaid bills.

Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo last month announced a cut in water charges.

Fixed water charges for high-density suburbs were reduced to US$5 from US$7 while those for low-density areas were pegged at US$11 from US$13.
Domestic water now costs 20c per cubic metre for the first 20 cubic metres, 60c for any consumption between 21 and 50 cubic metres while any usage above that attracts a US$1 charge per cubic metre.

But Mr Masunda criticised the Government's move to slash the tariffs.
He lashed out at Government ministers for politicking and their lack of appreciation of the cost council incurred in the provision of basic service delivery to the ratepayers.

He said the city was owed huge sums of money in unpaid bills suggesting that reducing the city's charges would further worsen the situation.

Last year the council defied a Government directive to allocate only 28 percent of its annual budget to salaries and spend the rest on service delivery.