Bulawayo councillors have raised concern over the remuneration of community grass cutters, calling for the workers to be placed on fixed salaries and for the City of Bulawayo to urgently resolve a 30% withholding tax deduction affecting some of them.
The concerns were raised during consideration of the parks section monthly report, submitted by housing and community services director Dictor Khumalo, during a council meeting.
Councillor Dumisani Netha said the remuneration arrangements needed review and proposed that the workers be placed on fixed salaries.
He called for a joint meeting with the finance department and urged council to address the 30% tax deduction, which he said was adversely affecting the workers.
Councillor Aleck Ndlovu said similar remuneration problems had resurfaced among workers involved in stormwater drainage maintenance.
He called on council to formally engage the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for clarity on tax-clearance requirements, particularly because the local authority did not consistently engage the same community groups.
Councillor Donaldson Mabuto said council needed advice from tax experts to establish what tax requirements applied to the community groups.
However, he noted the existing arrangements could not simply be changed because contracts had already been signed and the grass cutters had accepted the stipulated terms.
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He recommended the contractual arrangements be reviewed before next year’s programme.
Mayor David Coltart questioned why some community groups were subjected to the 30% deduction while others were not.
He said the tax-clearance issue was fundamentally a management responsibility and called for an institutional response instead of leaving individual groups to deal with the tax authority alone.
He proposed that the council obtain professional taxation advice.
Chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou said the council had already engaged Zimra over the matter.
The local authority was advised to deduct withholding tax from contractors without tax-clearance certificates, based on the original contract amounts.
She said Ward 20 had successfully obtained tax clearance and would therefore not have withholding tax deducted.
The clearance had been issued to the group collectively because contractors were paid as community groups.
She encouraged other groups to approach Zim directly for the necessary clearances.
Zhou supported further consideration by the finance and development committee and the engagement of professional tax experts, noting the issue extended to value-added tax and discounted transactions.
Councillor Roy Sekete, who chaired the meeting, proposed that the rates paid to grass cutters be referred to the finance and development committee for further consideration.
He stressed the need to review the terms and conditions governing the contracts ahead of the next cycle.
