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Councillor Knowledge Ndlovu

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
GWANDA municipality owes different service providers $8 million.
It is failing to liquidate the debt because of poor revenue inflows which mean that the little money raised goes to pay workers’ salaries. Gwanda’s wage bill is about twice as high as its income.  The workers are owed about $1 million in unpaid salaries for the past three months.
Gwanda Mayor Councillor Knowledge Ndlovu yesterday said the local authority was in a financial crisis. “Council has been garnished through all banks and we cannot bank with any bank in the country,” he said.

“We are failing to pay for all other services because every cent we get goes to salaries. We just can’t continue in that kind of set up, it’s an unhealthy situation. We have compromised service delivery.”

Clr Ndlovu said the local authority’s $250,000 monthly wage bill was abnormal given the monthly revenue inflows of up about $160,000.
“Council needs to correct that anomaly because we can’t afford to continue paying such salaries. It’s an abnormal situation and it is only us as council that can bring normalcy,” he said.

The mayor said council was under siege from its debtors for failing to meet its financial obligations after it was recently garnished by Zimra.
The local authority owes $6 million to Zinwa, $188,000 to Zesa, $62,000, to TelOne, Zimra $524,000, NSSA $96,000, Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF) $130,000 and $21,000 to the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef).

The municipality also owes $28,000 to the Standard Development Levy, $91,000 overdrafts in banks and $28,000 to its pensioners.
The council is also failing to pay for its workers’ funeral policies.

About 75 percent of council’s total revenue is channelled towards salaries against the government guidelines that 30 percent of total revenue should go towards wages and 70 percent to service delivery.

It has emerged that an ordinary council truck driver earns about $1,500 at a time when the government capped monthly perks for top management to $6,000.
Clr Ndlovu acknowledged that workers were planning to attach council property over the three months’ outstanding salaries.

He urged residents to support council by paying their debts to enhanced improved service delivery. Residents owe council more than $1 million in rent and rates with $743,111 owed by estate debtors.