Online Reporter
Vusumuzi Dube, Deputy Radar Editor
BULAWAYO Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, has had his contract extended by one year until November 2026, while the local authority seeks guidance from the Attorney General’s office on the application of a Statutory Instrument that raised the retirement age to 70 years.
Mr Dube’s contract was due to expire this month after he was granted a two-year extension in October 2023.
Last month, the Town Clerk wrote to councillors requesting that they rescind their earlier decision and instead implement the new Government directive raising the retirement age to 70 years. He sought a further five-year extension that would push his tenure to 2030.
In the latest development, councillors have agreed to extend his contract by one year as they await legal guidance from the Attorney General’s office.
This follows a meeting between the Mayor David Coltart, and Mr Dube.
“Following the background given by the Mayor on the meeting he had with the Town Clerk, Mr Dube, on the morning of 27 October 2025, the General Purposes Committee discussed the report on the extension of the Town Clerk’s contract of employment.
“It was then resolved that the Town Clerk’s existing contract, which terminates on 30 November 2025, shall be extended for one year to 30 November 2026 on existing conditions. Bulawayo City Council will seek an opinion on the application of Statutory Instrument 197/2024 to fixed-term contracts from the Civil Division of the Attorney General through the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works and shall be guided accordingly,” reads a council report.
Mr Dube has been at the helm of the local authority since 1 October 2016, when he moved from the Municipality of Victoria Falls, where he was also Town Clerk. He replaced the late Mr Middleton Nyoni.
The matter of extending his contract to 2030 has taken numerous twists over the past few months. At one point, the local authority even considered consulting its lawyers before endorsing the move.
This was after Mr Dube bypassed established council procedures by drafting the council report on his proposed contract extension himself rather than routing it through the Human Capital Director, Mr Makhosi Tshalebwa, as required.
Additionally, he refused to recuse himself from deliberations on his contract extension, contravening council protocol designed to prevent conflicts of interest.
According to a confidential council report, Mr Dube further revealed that he had been forced to bypass the council
committee responsible for human resources matters — the General Purposes Committee — claiming that the committee had twice failed to convene due to a lack of quorum.
“I wish to clearly make a declaration that I was left with no choice but to bring my report straight to council. The compelling reason being, following the postponement of the General Purposes Committee that partly dealt with my matter on 22 September 2025, the Special General Purposes Committee meeting has twice failed to sit — on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 4pm and 10am respectively — because of a lack of quorum.
“I understand very well that matters should be dealt with at committee level and then recommended to council for decisions; however, I am now afraid that my matter may end up out of time because we are now two months from the expiry of my contract,” reads the report.
In arguing his case for a five-year extension, Mr Dube noted that council has since adopted a ministerial circular setting the retirement age at 70 from 65.
“It will be recalled that council on 7 February 2024 extended my contract of employment by two years. The second year had a provision that a report be submitted to council to consider my age against the late retirement age of 65 years then, before Government policy extended the retirement age to 70 years.
The Ministry’s circular on extension of pensionable age, early retirement and mandatory retirement was adopted by council for implementation on 7 May 2025.”
