Gokwe council meets 30:70 ratio Ms Melania Mandeya
Ms Melania Mandeya

Ms Melania Mandeya

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GOKWE Town Council has met the 30:70 ratio wage and service delivery threshold in line with the Government directive to all local authorities.

In 2015, the Government through the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing announced that Government will not approve budgets for local authorities that do not comply with the 70:30 ratio as it had noted that salaries for a number of councils were gobbling more than half of the total revenue at the expense of service delivery.

Gokwe Town secretary Ms Melania Mandeya attributed council’s success to the discipline among the senior management which was allocating more resources to service delivery.

She said her council’s revenue averaged $42 000 per month and 30 percent of that amount was going towards salaries and 70 percent to service delivery.

“As a result Gokwe Town Council is one of the few local authorities that is implementing capital projects. The projects include construction of a state-of-art town house which is now 90 percent complete, building of two primary schools in Mapfungautsi and Nyaradza suburbs.

“The council is also constructing a clinic in Mapfungautsi suburb as well as a stadium,” she said.

The town secretary, however, said council was behind in paying salaries and blamed this on residents’ failure to pay their bills.

Ms Mandeya said the local authority was in 10 month salary arrears and appealed to residents to prioritise payment of bills.

She said council on its part was streamlining the workforce in order to reduce the wage bill.

Ms Mandeya said in 2016 the local authority bought two service vehicles, a 5 000 litre fire tender and a BT 50 truck.

This year, the council installed the town’s first traffic lights.

— @pchitumba1.

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