By Staff Writer
HARARE City Council (HCC) has tabled plans to keep war veterans employees on the payroll until they die over and above a cocktail of other lucrative benefits unveiled by the local authority recently.
Addressing a Full Council meeting last Thursday, HCC mayor, Adv. Jacob Mafume said he was awaiting a report from the Human Resources Committee following the proposal.
“Fighting for people and then being asked to come back to work is quite dramatic. We have just 120 war veterans on our payroll so I had asked the HR Committee to consider not removing them from the payroll until they die,” he said.
Mafume said he met the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association on the 24th of February 2024 where a raft of issues ranging between parking fees, free medical services and so forth were deliberated on.
He underscored that war veterans are critical components of society who deserve the due respect.
“Without their input we will not be sitting where we are today. I have reiterated time and time again that there is no country which has ever gone broke by taking care of its war veterans. There is no Council which will go broke because we have taken care of our War Veterans.
“We have discussed with War Veterans in Municipal Police and we have given them one grade up in their employment status. I have made sure that some of them also get residential stands and we were talking about parking the war veterans in Harare provided that the car belongs to that particular war veteran,” Adv. Mafume said.
He said in terms of progress, the one up promotion has since been effected alongside the residential stands on the back of imminent free parking which now awaits submission of their vehicle details.
“The war veterans working for HCC have asked for a ceremony where we will hand over medals to them which they will put on even when at work to make them easily identifiable as war veterans,” he added.
