adminAbel Zhakata Senior Reporter
AT LEAST 18 candidates have applied for the Mutare City town clerk’s post which fell vacant early this year following the resignation of Mr Obert Muzawazi in the wake of a damning audit report that exposed gross corporate malpractices.
Mayor, Councillor Tatenda Nhamarare, revealed this week that his office had received 18 applicants by Wednesday.
The municipality is accepting applications by end of day today (Friday).
“We have received 18 applications from people who wish to fill the vacant town clerk’s post but we expect to receive more letters before closure of the whole process on Friday.
“We are going to follow procedure in short listing candidates as well conducting the interviews,” he said.
Cllr Nhamarare was not at liberty to disclose the names of candidates who had applied for the post.
However, sources at the Civic Centre revealed that the bulk of the applicants were educationists with no experience of local governance.
“Most of the applicants do not have the 10 years experience in local governance that is a requisite for the incumbent and these people are likely not to make it on the short list.
“No big names have tendered their applications yet but we expect quite a number of late comers to bring their applications before closure,” said a source.
Following the resignation of Mr Muzawazi a long list of possible replacements were proffered with Manicaland Provincial Administrator Mr Fungai Mbetsa and Africa University Dean of Students Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba featuring prominently.
Internally, the Acting Town Clerk, Engineer Donald Nyatoti and the Housing and Community Services Director Mr Stenard Mapurisa were said to have shown interest in occupying the post. They fully understand the operations of the local authority having served for more than 15 years at management level.
Those privy to the goings on revealed that the reason why a few people have shown interest in the job was because there was no guarantee of remuneration at the local authority.
They said council was failing to attract qualified personnel to fill several vacant posts over the years because of non-payment of salaries.
“There is no sane person who will risk losing his/her current paying job and seek employment at a local authority where workers are not being paid. Yes, you will get the job but there is no guarantee that you will be paid at the end of the month. The issue of allowances that became topical in the audit report was because managers were trying to make ends meet by awarding themselves the allowances as a way of skirting around non-payment of salaries. We doubt that real qualified people will apply for the job,” said a source.
Cllr Nhamarare said the successful candidate is expected to provide strategic direction to council as its accounting officer and chief advisor.
Reporting to the mayor and to council committees, the town clerk’s responsibilities, among others, are to draft by-laws, policy planning, administration of all council activities and serve as the chief spokesperson for the local authority.
However, the successful candidate faces a mammoth task which includes coming up with a robust debt collection strategy to recover over $30 million the municipality is owed by defaulting clients.
Council workers have gone for close to three years without salaries, a situation that has resulted in low worker morale and high incidences of theft and fraudulent activities at the Civic Centre.
Service delivery is in the doldrums characterised by a poor road network filled with potholes, water supply bottlenecks and sporadic garbage collection.
Council clinics faced a serious industrial action in recent weeks as medical personnel downed tools requesting to be paid their dues.
Corruption and graft has made the headlines at council and the new incumbent has a daunting task to sweep clean the corridors at the Civic Centre and make culprits accountable.
Residents have, on numerous occasions, voiced their concerns over poor service delivery vowing not to pay rates till service improves.
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