City fathers awarding themselves hefty salaries

Bulawayo residents have accused city council directors of awarding themselves hefty salaries at the expense of service delivery.

They also urged the cash strapped council to reduce salaries of some of its management staff to contain administration costs.

Bulawayans called on the city council to revive its neglected facilities around the city to expand revenue collection.

Mayor Thaba Moyo had told a 2013 budget consultation meeting at the Small City Hall that salaries and administration bills gobbled over $7 million from January to May.

Council had collected just over $24 million from ratepayers during the same period, which was less than half of the $51 million projected in this year's budget.

If the budget had performed to expectations, the local authority would have spent
$19 million on administration and salaries.

Residents said the amount spent on salaries was too high and was a threat to service delivery.

"The heads of department's salaries are too high," one of the residents said. "Why can't you try to reduce them to manageable levels?"

Another resident said it was important for the local authority to be sensitive over the issue of salaries because "they are paid out from the money that we pay".

"That money is from our pockets," the resident said. "We want to know what the justification of such huge salaries is."

But Moyo - who is also first vice-president of the Urban Councils' Association of Zimbabwe - said government was addressing the issue of remuneration of management in local authorities.

"That issue is now at Cabinet level," he said.