Last month the councillors attended the Gweru induction workshop that was presided over by officials from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.
This time, the workshop, which was internally organised, was initially meant to be held at Matopos in the Matobo district before being moved to Zvishavane as venues at Matopos were fully booked. Former town clerk, Mr Moffat Ndlovu was the main facilitator of the training.
It has further been revealed that the city’s mayor, Councillor David Coltart, failed to attend the induction for the second time despite there being a specific slot on the roles and conduct of the mayor. Confirming the workshop, Clr Coltart said the difference between the two meetings was that the Gweru one was led by the Government while this one was mainly an internal one, meant for councillors to have a full appreciation of council operations.
“This induction was an internally organised one that was facilitated by the city’s former town clerk, Mr Moffat Ndlovu to appraise our councillors on council operations and also what is expected of them as councillors. The difference with the Gweru one is that this one was wholly an internal operations induction,” said Clr Coltart.
Questioned on his failure to attend the two inductions, Clr Coltart said it was a matter of his diary as a lawyer clashing with the dates of the trainings.
“On the first one we were given a 12-hour notice which is why I noted to council that I won’t be able to attend due to other pressing issues, while on this Zvishavane one I had others matters that had already been booked a month prior.
“Remember I am a senior partner of a law firm and there were other issues in my diary that are set in my diary a month prior like arbitrations and these could not be put on hold because of my absence. Also, I was meant to meet members of the Zimbabwe Street Cricket team that travelled all the way from Harare just to meet me,” said the mayor.
Sunday News also got hold of the city’s deputy mayor, Clr Donaldson Mabuto who attended the workshop in place of Clr Coltart who said the main purpose of the training was to ensure that councillors got a full appreciation of their roles and ensure that they do not encroach on the operations of council officials.
“What you have to remember is that 90 percent of the current councillors are new hence there was a feeling that there is a need to induct them on the local authority’s administrative system ensuring that as councillors we are not seen overlapping the roles of management. Management felt there was a need to find each other, have clearly defined roles, even issues to do with personal etiquette were touched on during the training and I feel overall both councillors and management came from that meeting with a renewed enthusiasm to further develop this beautiful city,” said Clr Mabuto.
Some of the topics that were touched on include, procedure of committee meetings, relationship between councillors and council officials, professional grooming and institutional hygiene, roles of the mayor, dressing, self-image projection and conflict resolution. Sunday News
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