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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
Bulawayo City Council has failed to fill 30 vacant nursing and three senior engineers’ posts despite getting the go-ahead from government as it does not have money to pay them, mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said yesterday.
Clr Moyo told the city’s business community during a meeting at the Small City Hall that the local authority was struggling to remain afloat given suppressed revenue inflows, which has seen residents owing it $84 million in unpaid rates. He said the local authority was failing to attract skilled manpower because of poor packages.

Clr Moyo said the council was hamstrung by manpower shortages with the health and engineering services departments being the worst affected.

“Council is an employer and we are not immune to the effects of a difficult economy. We are supposed to have a workforce of up to 5,000 workers but we are operating with about 3,000. The health services department is seriously affected,” he said.

“We’ve not been able to recruit 30 nurses and three engineers despite getting approval to do so because we can’t pay them. We got three additional refuse compactors but we don’t have the personnel to use them.”

He also said council was struggling to service its $83.4 million debt to different creditors.

Financial director Kempton Ndimande admitted council was no longer following the 30-70 percent expenditure ratio guideline from government because of poor revenue inflows. “We’re not following government guidelines because our operations are not mechanised.

Our service is offered by wages and salaries. Most of our services are labour intensive,” he said.

Engineering services director Simela Dube presented a report on two transport firms that have been formed in the city recently.

He said council registered the firms, Tshova Mbaiwa and Bulawayo Public Transporters’ Association (Bupta) Public Limited and would meet operators today to discuss implementation modalities.

“We’ve identified various sites and designated routes to be used by the two firms but we need contributions on how to operationalise the move. We’ll be meeting stakeholders tomorrow discuss this,” said Dube.