News / National
Zanu-PF-aligned council workers to be fired
08 Aug 2018 at 06:41hrs | Views
UNCERTAINTY has gripped a number of Zanu-PF party supporters employed as casual workers at the MDC Alliance-dominated Marondera Municipality after they received text messages advising them not to report for work on Monday.
The move came after the ruling party lost massively to the MDC Alliance, which claimed 11 out of the 12 contested wards.
The casual workers were engaged in 2013 when Zanu-PF took control of the municipality.
Outgoing workers' committee chairperson Kennedy Muraicho confirmed the development.
"I heard that some workers received messages that they should not report for work. However, I heard that a dialogue was held and that a consensus has been reached to the effect that they should continue working," he said.
A worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed receiving a text message and said they had since been advised to report for work by their party superiors.
"I got a text message on Monday morning to the effect that we should not report to work. However, today (yesterday), our ward councillor said there is nothing like that and that we should resume working," the worker said.
Re-elected ward 7 councillor, Dominic Matangira, said the previous council resolved to trim the number of voluntary workers who were gobbling thousands of dollars in wages monthly.
"At first, we wanted to have 93 voluntary workers who are paid $4 per day. We did this under the food for work mantra, but the numbers ballooned to hundreds such that they gobbled around $80 000 per month. The voluntary workers outnumbered those on contracts, hence we resolved to trim the number," Matangira said.
"These voluntary workers report to their ward councilors, not to council."
Efforts to get a comment from Marondera town clerk Josiah Musuwo and chamber secretary Munashe Nyamuzihwa were fruitless yesterday.
The move came after the ruling party lost massively to the MDC Alliance, which claimed 11 out of the 12 contested wards.
The casual workers were engaged in 2013 when Zanu-PF took control of the municipality.
Outgoing workers' committee chairperson Kennedy Muraicho confirmed the development.
"I heard that some workers received messages that they should not report for work. However, I heard that a dialogue was held and that a consensus has been reached to the effect that they should continue working," he said.
A worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed receiving a text message and said they had since been advised to report for work by their party superiors.
"I got a text message on Monday morning to the effect that we should not report to work. However, today (yesterday), our ward councillor said there is nothing like that and that we should resume working," the worker said.
Re-elected ward 7 councillor, Dominic Matangira, said the previous council resolved to trim the number of voluntary workers who were gobbling thousands of dollars in wages monthly.
"At first, we wanted to have 93 voluntary workers who are paid $4 per day. We did this under the food for work mantra, but the numbers ballooned to hundreds such that they gobbled around $80 000 per month. The voluntary workers outnumbered those on contracts, hence we resolved to trim the number," Matangira said.
"These voluntary workers report to their ward councilors, not to council."
Efforts to get a comment from Marondera town clerk Josiah Musuwo and chamber secretary Munashe Nyamuzihwa were fruitless yesterday.
Source - newsday
