Harare City Council yesterday resolved to send names of
three successful candidates for the position of town clerk to the Local Government
Board (LGB) for consideration.
The three are Engineer Hosiah Chisango who scored 1 052
points, former Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) finance director Mr Robert
Mangwiro 903 points and a University of Zimbabwe lecturer Mr Eugine Makaya who
managed 852 points.
A special council meeting held yesterday resolved to
forward the name of Mr Mangwiro despite that he was dismissed by Zimra after
being found guilty of 21 counts of misconduct in 2016.
Mr Mangwiro challenged the dismissal at the Labour Court,
claiming the conviction was made in error, but the disciplinary committee
maintained that a dismissal was appropriate in light of the conviction. Harare
Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni said council had resolved that Mr
Mangwiro’s name should be forwarded on the principle that everyone is
considered innocent until proven guilty.
“We met as council to receive the recommendations of the
Human Resources and General Purposes Committee on the interviewing process for
the next Town Clerk for the City of Harare,” he said.
“The recommendations were acceptable after a lot of debate.
As you appreciate, there are indications that in the public space there are
challenges facing one of the aspirants for the position.
“The position that we have adopted is that everyone is
considered innocent until proven guilty, so the recommendations are proceeding
as per the outcome of the interviews, so there will be no objections on this
particular matter that is still under consideration.”
Queried on when the public can expect the appointment of
the new town clerk after LGB approval, Clr Manyenyeni said, “We have no idea.
The Local Government Board operate at their own space and if you ask me l do
not even know how often they meet. We engage them when we have a position for
senior management.”
During council’s debate on Mr Mangwiro’s case, acting
chamber secretary Mr Charles Kandemiri said council had the legal right to
vary, alter or reject the recommendations from the human resources committee.
He said in terms of the Urban Council’s Act, it did not
specify the number of candidates that council should refer to the LGB.
“If council is convinced that candidate number two has some
misconduct it is not pleased about, council has the power to remove him,” said
Mr Kandemiri.
“It is subject to council to decide because this is a
recommendation.”
Harare has failed to fill the position over 30 months owing
to various reasons with the latest attempt seeing a consultant going through
over 127 applications, with only 11 candidates being shortlisted for the
position.
The post fell vacant in 2014 after Dr Tendai Mahachi’s
retirement. In 2016, council appointed former banker Mr James Mushore
to the post of town clerk, but just a few hours after council announced his
appointment, Government rescinded the decision because the local authority
flouted procedures of appointment as laid out in the Urban Councils Act.
Council then conducted fresh interviews, where top MDC-T
official and former Cabinet minister Dr Tapiwa Mashakada came up tops, but the
Local Government Board did not approve the three short-listed candidates.
Dr Mashakada was dismissed as a suitable candidate by the
board, which said his curriculum vitae did not offer a concrete history in an
appropriate executive management position, hence his experience was nowhere
near what was required of a town clerk. Herald
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