Suspended Gweru City Council town clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza has been fired after being found guilty of two counts of willful disobedience of a lawful order and gross inefficiency by a disciplinary committee.
Ms Gwatipedza was suspended on October 14 last year. Following
her suspension, the city of Gweru appointed Mr Melusi Moyo of Dube-Banda,
Nzarayapera legal practitioners to preside over her disciplinary hearing which
took over eight months to be completed.
Mr Moyo’s committee recommended the dismissal of Ms
Gwatipedza. It also recommended that council notify Ms Gwatipedza of her dismissal
from council employment and that council notifies the Local Government Board
about the dismissal.
She stood accused of refusing to follow orders from the
mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe among other charges. Ms Gwatipedza confirmed
that she had been fired. “It’s true that I have been fired but will comment
later,” she said.
After the hearing, Mr Moyo released the guilty verdict with
recommendations to fire Ms Gwatipedza which were adopted by council last
Friday.
Parties filed written submissions in mitigation and
aggravation to enable me to consider the appropriate penalty following
conviction of the town clerk on 18 November 2020 on the charge of willful
disobedience to a lawful order and of gross inefficiency in the performance of
her duties. Gweru City council takes a serious view of the offences. It has
thus prayed for dismissal of the town clerk. The town clerk on the other hand
prays for lenience and educational sentence.
“Willful disobedience to a lawful order justifying
dismissal of an employee must be such disobedience as to be likely to undermine
the relationship between the employer and the employee, going to the root of
the contract employment. The test whether the employee’s willful disobedience
is a breach going to the root of the contract is an objective one,” reads the
judgement.
The judgment notes that during the hearing Ms Gwatipedza
argued that there is no specific provision in the Urban Councils Act which
obliges her to take orders from the mayor and as a matter of law and practice,
she acts through council resolutions and as a lay person, she didn’t believe
she had to comply with the mayor’s instruction but she nevertheless complied.
She further argued that in the context of contracts of
employment for heads of departments, there was no evidence led as to why such
contracts were being requested.
“I have already found that all the elements of this charge
were met and the question that arises is whether the disobedience is such that
it is likely to undermine the employment relationship between the parties. In
other words, is it serious to such an extent that it goes to the root of the
contract?
“The factors that should be weighed against the mitigating
factors submitted by Gwatipedza include the fact that the contracts of
employment had been requested by the mayor who heads a council composed of new
councillors. These councillors were not part of Gweru City Council when she was
employed and they were thus entitled to know her conditions of service,” reads
the judgment.
With regards to the charge of gross inefficiency, the
judgment noted that evidence showed that the heads of departments were
incompetent in some cases and it emerged that Ms Gwatipedza did not play her
part to the level expected under Section 136 of the Urban Councils Act.
The judgment noted that the town clerk’s duties include
supervising and controlling the activities of council employees, managing the
operations and property of council and proper administration of council, among
others.
“What is also concerning is that the gross inefficiency
manifests itself on several occasions and the first case in point is on failure
to take steps to comply with the audit cycle,” reads the judgment.
Mr Moyo recommended to council that findings of the
disciplinary authority in their entirety without any amendments and dismissal
of Gwatipedza from the employment of City of Gweru be adopted by Council with
immediate effect.
He also recommended that council notifies Ms Gwatipedza of her dismissal from council employment and that council notifies the Local Government Board about her dismissal also. Chronicle
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