'Bulawayo town clerk underpaid'

Bulawayo  mayor Martin Moyo says the local authority's town clerk, Middleton Nyoni, was 'underpaid' as his salary was less than $10 000 per month, which is a far cry from what his counterpart in Harare has been taking home.

The media last week revealed that Harare's town clerk, Tendai Mahachi, earned a whopping $37 000 while Harare's 18-member management team gobbled $500 000 per month on salaries.

Following the development, Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo ordered the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to furnish him with the salary schedule of the council's executives as government moves in to stop the rot where council employees earn huge salaries at the expense of service delivery.

This prompted BCC to hold an urgent full council meeting on Saturday to discuss the directive.

Moyo told The Zimbabwe Mail that the councillors  were shocked to learn that Nyoni earned way below $10 000 per month in salaries and allowances.

"We had a meeting on Saturday where the town clerk's salary and benefits were tabled, scrutinised and verified before sending to Chombo. There is nothing obscene about the salaries and they (executive managers) have reasonable benefits and without divulging his salary, I can tell you the town clerk is way below $10 000. He is underpaid," said Moyo.

He said if Chombo was to review salaries, Nyoni's salary should be reviewed upwards because the salary was not befitting a person of his status.

"His salary could be mistaken for a Plumtree or Gwanda town clerk's salary. Everyone congratulated the town clerk for having a reasonable, if not low, salaries bill and benefits for the executive managers," said the mayor.

Chombo recently ordered that councils should attain a 30:70 salary to service delivery ratio.