ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH) chairperson, Trevor Ncube, on Tuesday this week challenged government to look into Bulawayo mayor and councillors’ salaries.
AMH is the publisher of daily NewsDay and weeklies Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, it also runs digital television channel Heart & Soul.
Bulawayo mayor David Coltart had told Ncube during the In Conversation with Trevor Bulawayo series that councillors cannot survive without workshop allowances.
Coltart earlier this year revealed his decision not to step down, after posting his January pay slip on X (formerly Twitter) showing his US$25 pay.
He said his decision to join the local authority was not informed by greed, but by ensuring that locals receive quality service delivery.
“That breaks my heart. Without workshops, councillors can’t survive. It’s something that government needs to look at because my sense is that local governance is at the forefront of service delivery. Therefore, we should have the best among us running the city councils,” Ncube said.
He said the mayoral post should be honoured.
“My sense is that we are weakening local governance by removing the executive. The nation is built by all of us, all cities pumping on full steam, every citizen doing what needs to be done,” he said.
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Coltart said there was low morale among councillors.
“I get paid an allowance of US$47 a month as mayor and councillors are paid even less, so there is very low morale among councillors. Councillors are constantly finding ways of supplementing,” he said.
“We spend far too much time on workshops and we do the practical day-to-day business that needs to be done, because, without workshops, councillors can’t survive.
“The major problem is the change from executive to ceremonial mayors. It means that mayors and councillors need to have at least two jobs and definitely, they need a job outside of being mayors and they balance the income.”
Coltart compared the situation with that of South Africa, saying the government should adopt what is done in South Africa to uplift the country’s economy.
“If they are like the citizens of South Africa, whose full-time job is running the city and it reflects globally, that’s something that government needs to look at. If I could admit that if I committed 24 hours to this job, there is no doubt that we could achieve a lot more, you can’t just work in an executive power with limited powers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Coltart has promised to work tirelessly to provide quality service delivery in the city.
“I realised that this is a marathon. We will achieve things in these five years, if I am not recalled. It’s very important that people have realistic expectations of what can be achieved. There are foundations of some things that I see being laid and we will build on [them] in the coming years,” he said.
