Bulawayo loses US$1 million to strike

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/ 28/04/2012 00:00:00 by Staff Reporter STRIKING Bulawayo council workers have returned to work after agreeing to take their pay dispute to arbitration. The strike between Monday and Thursday lost the council nearly US$1 million in revenue after residents neglected to pay rates, financial director Kimpton Ndimande said. The BCC collects an average US$4,1 million from residents every month, but Ndimande says they will miss that target by US$1 million in April. He said the local authority got an average of $4,1 million per month, but this month it is estimated that it would get $3,1 million. “Ratepayers thought that since there was a strike, the Revenue Hall was closed. We were open and working with cashiers in the rates department,” Ndimande said. The strike had sent council bosses into a panic, coming in the middle of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair whose five-day run was set to end late Saturday. Most council services including clinics, rubbish collection, water pipe maintenance and even grave digging were affected by the strike. The 3,200 council workers say their February salaries – the last time they were paid – were slashed by 40 percent without consultation by the council. The workers have not been paid their March and April salaries with the MDC-T run council insisting that it is broke. Unions say 12 of the 23 urban councils are in pay arrears. The councils blame a bloated workforce and a poor debt recovery mechanism for their budget troubles. The Bulawayo City Council, with debts of US$55 million – including US$17 million owed to ZESA. But the council says it is owed US$35 million by residents, US$23 million by companies and US$4 million by the government – making for a total of nearly US$62 million.