Harare working on cutting abnormal wage bill

The cash-strapped Harare City Council has announced plans to realign its "abnormal" salary schedule and match it with market rates in order to devote the bulk of its revenue towards service delivery.

Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni said the local authority will this week award a tender to a consultancy firm, which will work with council to reduce its wage bill.

Manyenyeni said council was struggling to provide quality services because of the huge cost structure, which has seen Harare only dedicating $9 million to salaries, $2,5 million to water treatment and a paltry $1 million to service delivery from the $13 million it collects each month.

He said, under normal circumstances, council should rake in $25 million in rates per month, but was being undercut by defaulting ratepayers.