The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO city councillors and council officials are headed for a nasty showdown after the latter reportedly pushed through a motion to have top officials get a golden handshake upon retirement, despite the motion having been turned down on four previous occasions.The latest showdown comes after the local authority’s former deputy director of engineering services, Mr Job Jika Ndebele, wrote to the local authority requesting that he be awarded gratuity having retired under the exclusive “executive group”.
In the letter, in which Mr Ndebele signs off as “retired deputy director”, he notes that he had worked in the municipality for 24 years and nine months and believes that he deserved to be awarded gratuity for services rendered.
Gratuity is a sum of money tendered, in addition to the basic packages, to certain service sector workers for services performed.
“You obviously are aware that my last date of service with Bulawayo City Council was 31 January 2014 at the end of my three months (extension) contract offered by council after my official retirement on 31 October 2013, I have, therefore, worked for the council for 24 years and nine months.
“My last position held in council was deputy director of engineering services (town planning), a position I held with effect from February 1994 (over 19 years), whilst previously I was employed as assistant director (January 1991-February 1994) and principal town planner (May 1989-January 1991). I also acted as director of engineering for several short periods, the longest stretch being for over three years, from 2007 to 2010,” reads Mr Ndebele’s letter.
The former deputy director notes that while the issue had been previously discussed by council there was no substantive conclusion regarding the issue of gratuities.
However, according to a council confidential report, the local authority’s executive group — consisting of Grades 13 to 16 — had reportedly caucused and made more submissions demanding more perks upon retirement. Grades 13 to 16 include the town clerk, chamber secretary, departmental directors and deputy directors.
The latest demands include being awarded land, be it residential (2 000 to 4 000 square metres), commercial land or industrial land at 100 percent discount, encashment of leave days to settle outstanding financial liabilities and 100 percent rebate on rates and water bills.
The top officials also pushed for council to continue paying club membership fees for the rest of their lives and professional fees for at least two professional institutions for the rest of their lives provided that they retire at the age of 60 and above.
On the issue of gratuity, the executive group requested that for the first 10 years of service a one-month salary for every year served be awarded for between 11 and 15 years served, one-and-a-half-month salary be granted for each year — 16 to 20 years served, and two months salary be granted for each year of service above 20 years.
“It is common in most reputable organisations that in addition to the pension an executive employee is paid gratuity or a golden handshake and this is usually related to the period of service and based on the employee’s last salary.
“Should an executive employee die before receiving a gratuity, such gratuity shall be paid to his or her estate, that is, the sum which the employee would have received if his or her contract of employment had terminated on the day of his or her death,” reads the confidential report.
Efforts to get a comment from the local authority’s mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo were, however, fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered.
Impeccable council sources revealed that when the issue was brought up for discussion during the council’s general purposes committee meeting, councillors immediately turned it down which then irked the top officials who believed they deserved better treatment for their dedicated service to the municipality.
“The top officials clearly wanted to take advantage of Mr Ndebele’s letter to further their cause, which in itself was mischievous. The former deputy director simply requested for gratuity but they went on to try and smuggle their personal requests to increase their exit packages.
“The timing was also not perfect as it came at a time when we were faced with a meeting with the local authority’s works council, who were themselves demanding a salary adjustment. Therefore, if we granted their motion it would have seemed insincere because right now we cannot afford giving our workers an increment,” said the source.
The matter was initially tabled on 23 November 2012 before it was deferred to 13 February 2013, where again councillors and the officials failed to reach an understanding.
“There is no council policy on benefits that can be offered to employees retiring or voluntarily terminating their service with council. However, attempts have been made previously to formulate a retirement package for council’s executive personnel but without any conclusion or finalisation.
“As a result, each retirement or termination case has been treated separately and differently leading to disgruntlement and some retired executives finding themselves living as paupers after having served the local authority for many years, such a situation is undesirable and embarrassing considering that most reputable organisations offer a good retirement package to their executive officers,” reads the report.
According to the report, the top officials want the hefty packages as “the local press was making a mockery of the predicament of retired and retiring council executive” — thus the need for them to get the perks.
