GWERU City Council employees will likely have a miserable Christmas as the local authority, facing serious financial problems, is yet to pay their September salaries let, alone annual bonuses. Stephen Chadenga OWN CORRESPONDENT
Council, which has been in arrears since the beginning of the year, last paid its workers August salaries in November and it is not known when the salary arrears will be cleared.
Gweru mayor Hamutendi Kombayi said his council was committed to paying workers and would make sure they have something during the Christmas holidays.
“We might be facing challenges, but meeting salary obligations remains our top priority and we will do everything we can to fulfil this,” he said.
Most workers, however, told Southern Eye that they were finding it hard to pay rentals and other bills because of delays in salary disbursements.
Finance director Edgar Mwedzi said the local authority would not be able to pay bonuses as it was struggling to meet salary obligations.
“We cannot talk of the 13th cheque when we are struggling to pay workers’ salaries,” he explained.
“We are in three-month salary arrears, so it will not make sense to even think of bonuses given such a situation.”
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Mwedzi said the cash-strapped local authority was concentrating on raising money to pay employees’ salaries, hence bonuses were out of the question.
Last month council unveiled a $32 million budget that saw salaries and allowances accounting for 40% of the total expenditure.
Unveiling the 2015 Gweru budget last month, finance committee chairperson councillor Albert Chirau said the local authority was in a critical financial position due to the liquidity crunch, which has seen companies either going into judicial management or liquidation.
