City retirees petition mayor

HARARE City Council retirees have written to mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni demanding that human capital director Dr Cainos Chingombe must retire as he has reached 60 years.

They argue that council policy initiated by Dr Chingombe in 2014 retires employees on reaching the age of 60 and had affected some of them.

But Dr Chingombe yesterday insisted that he was below the retirement age.

In a letter to Cllr Manyenyeni that was copied to all councillors, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and the Local Government Board dated November 27, 2017, the retirees said it was unfair for Dr Chingombe to remain in office.

“As former City of Harare employees who were affected by the introduction of this new policy, we are deeply depressed by your council’s apparent unfair application of the policy you adopted in January 2014 in that the HCD who created the current policy has been allowed to continue in council employment despite him being over the age of 60,” they said.

“This has been brought to your attention and no action has been taken. The HCD is currently the front runner for the Town Clerk’s post.”

The retirees argued that council official records showed that Dr Chingombe was born on November 10, 1961.

They said this contradicted information provided by Dr Chingombe to journalists who wrote two different stories when he launched a book.

The two stories indicate that Dr Chingombe was born in 1956.

This makes him 61 years old, yet council records indicate he is only 56-years-old, they said.

“We view this as gross unfair labour practice and an indisputable act of corruption on the part of your council,” the former employees said. “We reserve the right to bring the matter to other authorities for appropriate action to be taken.”

The retirees challenged Cllr Manyenyeni to take immediate action.

“Unless his extended stay in the employ of council has been approved, he should repay all the salaries paid to him beyond the age of 60 as all such receipts are a product of fraud,” they said.

“Should he be allowed to continue in the employ of council, whoever should give such authority be made to pay all the salaries the HCD would have received as such authority is in complicity to an apparent misrepresentation.”

Dr Chingombe yesterday said: “Whatever documents I am using are authentic and have been issued by the Government of Zimbabwe. If anyone doubts the authenticity of my documents they are free to approach the registrar for verification.”

Efforts to get a comment from Cllr Manyenyeni were futile.