…city at stand still as grader operator goes on leave

Staff Reporter

Road maintenance operations in the City of Kwekwe have come to a halt after it emerged that the local authority is relying on a single grader operator, who is currently on leave — effectively grounding all grading activities.

The issue came to light during a full council meeting held last Thursday, where councillors expressed concern over the sluggish pace of road maintenance across the city.

Ward 7 Councillor Makomborero Mlambo questioned the delay in rehabilitating even small stretches of road.

“What is stalling on the issue of road maintenance? I have noted that we take time to maintain the roads. It takes time to just work on 10 metres of road — if you have noticed, why is that?” quizzed Mlambo.

Ward 1 Councillor Alex Senge asked the same question

“Where is the grader operator? We have noticed that it has been two weeks now and the grader is not working,” he said.

In response, Director of Works John Mhike revealed that the city’s only qualified grader operator is currently on leave, and no other member of staff is trained or certified to operate the machinery.

“We are currently facing a challenge with the grader. The operator who drives the grader is on leave and has not yet returned. The other operators we have are not capacitated to operate the grader, so we made a decision to recruit two multi-functional operators who can handle all machines,” said Mhike.

Mhike added that an advert had already been flighted and the council hoped to recruit the new operators as early as next week for “immediate rescue.”

The discussion sparked wider concerns about poor remuneration for key technical staff, which councillors say is causing an exodus of skilled workers to better-paying companies and municipalities.

Councillor Senge warned that the city risks further operational stagnation if the root cause of staff departures — poor salaries — is not urgently addressed.

“We need to revisit or make a job evaluation. These grader operators are leaving because they are underpaid compared to other local authorities or companies,” he said. “We once discussed that these operators are underpaid, and the issue was said to be addressed and nothing has materialized,” he said.

His concerns were echoed by Kwekwe Mayor Albert Zinhanga, who acknowledged the urgency of re-evaluating salary structures, particularly for essential services personnel.

“Critical staff issues need to be looked into through job evaluations,” Zinhanga said.

“It’s unacceptable that a city of this size can be held hostage by the absence of one person. It shows there’s no proper succession planning or skills training for technical posts.”

Councillor Matsa said the ongoing recruitment of new grader operators may provide short-term relief, but warn that unless systemic issues of understaffing and low remuneration are tackled head-on, the city will remain vulnerable to such operational breakdowns.

He said remuneration issues needs to be revisited.

“We once discussed that these operators are underpaid and the issue was said to be addressed. Those who do more work are underpaid. The other problem we do not know who earns what here and that is a problem,” he said.