Staff Shortages Cripple Harare City Operations

By Zvikomborero Machirori

Harare City Council is facing a massive shortage of staff, in the health, engineering and technical areas that include nurses, doctors, engineers and technicians.

The professionals are leaving due to poor working conditions and the Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said the exodus has handicapped council operations.

In his state of the City address, Mayor Mafume said the local authority was not able to replace the workers who left due to various reasons.

“We are currently handicapped in replacing those who left the organization due to various reasons as require ministerial authority to recruit and such authority is not always granted,” said Mayor Mafume.

Council accuses central government of interference in including in its human resources.

“We are appealing to the government to allow the City to manage its human resources affairs especially for those positions not designated to allow for effective and efficient staff replacement for improved service delivery,” he added.
On the issue of salaries, Mafume said as much as they have been paying Salaries on time from January to June 2022, the challenge is the value continues to be eroded by inflation.

“We appreciate that salaries have since been eroded by inflation and measures are being put in place to cushion our workforce.”

“The employees are now demanding salaries in USD and the only way to raise the money is to change some of the demand driven services in foreign currency,” he said.

Harare City Council and central government have been embroiled in nasty power fights where the local authority has been accusing local government ministry of interference.