adminFOLLOWING former Chipinge Rural District Council chief executive, Mr James Mundoma’s colourful send-off attended by the who-is-who of Chipinge and local authorities at Tanganda New Year’s Gift Training recently, our Chipinge Correspondent, Luthando Mapepa (LM) caught up with the shrewd executive for a one-on-one interview. Mr James Mundoma (JM) leaves an indelible mark in local governance and at the same time boast many accolades during his tenure at the echelon of Chipinge Rural District Council. Mr Mundoma retired at the end of June 2015 after serving Chipinge for 14 and half years.
LM: Mr Mundoma, Congratulations for leaving office in a ceremonial way. How do you feel to leave an office you have served for the past 14 and half years with distinction?
JM: I am a very happy person. Perhaps I will start with the negative side. It is very sad to leave the CRDC team that include councillors, the community and employees because we had established a wonderful working relationship. It is really a sad moment, but I am happy that I am leaving in a dignified manner.
LM: During your tenure you endeared yourself with the people of Chipinge to the extent of becoming a household name in the district. Are you native to the district, if not what could be the reason for your good relationship with the Chipinge community?
JM: Yes, I am not a native of Chipinge, but I came from within the province of Manicaland in Mutasa District. I am now seeing myself as a native of Chipinge because during my tenure of office I established a healthy relationship with the community and became a commoner in the district. I earned trust and confidence with the people of Chipinge by being transparent and fair in my CRDC career spanning 14 and half years in the local authority. In early 2000 when I took over as council CEO there was a lot of mistrust and suspicion in Chipinge between council employees and its residents. No one seems to trust anybody in the council which was a big challenge to co-ordinate these publics. For instance in 2001, during the era of economic meltdown council workers went on strike demanding their dues from the council, concurrently residents joined the strike by refusing to pay rates. It became a big challenge to raise money to meet the employees’ demands. We reached a point of extending a begging bowl to neighbouring local authorities to fund the day to day running of the council.
In solving this, we held our watershed meeting in Chimanimani with all the stakeholders and that is when we started talking with residents. We ended up establishing a strong relationship. That was the first and last strike during my tenure of office. We went on to establish 42 centres in the district where we periodically consult residents about the day to day running of the council especially budgets . . .
LM: During your stint at the helm of CRDC you won many accolades personally and as a local authority, may you shed more light on these achievements?
JM. Actually I came to join CRDC when there was one local authority in Chipinge and part of my job description was to separate the town board to a town status. It was a difficult job since there were a lot of pressure particularly urban dwellers who are more demanding than their rural counterparts. We successfully attaining town status in 2002 and that was my first achievement. We achieved town status ahead of Beitbridge and Chiredzi. Again during the economic meltdown no council employee left for greener pastures despite the poor earnings. We kept them motivated and this was achieved mainly by applying the 3Cs, that is communication, coordination and consultation. In 2011, I received the public service manager of the year first runner up award. The same year our council was ranked first by Zimbabwe Investment Authority out of 92 local authorities in the country.
On two occasions in 2010 and 2013 the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing and Public Works ranked CRDC among the top five councils in road repair and road maintenance.
LM: Reflecting on your experience as a CEO, what would you say was the greatest challenge?
JM: I think managing politics was one of the greatest challenges during my early days. Chipinge District is a multi-democracy district where Zanu-PF, Ndonga and MDC councillors all have a say in the running of the affairs of the local authority. Failure to handle the politics properly can be a minefield. You need to tactically handle the situation and should not be found to be aligning to a certain party and undermining others. You need to be strong in removing councillors’ roles as politicians and change them into administrators.
LM: Many organisations are synonymous with their leaders to the extent that the leader becomes a well-established brand of a particular organisation. Having placed Chipinge RDC on the country’s local governance map, what plans did you put in place to make sure that your legacy transcends your stay?
JM: I am one person who believes that the future of an organisation is not in the hands of one person. At CRDC, we established a mandatory programme that we trained all employees to upgrade their CVs. We also have an appropriate in-house training. At one point we brought Zimbabwe Institute of Management staff to train our employees so that they attain more skills because in career development you can’t stay where you are. Most of our employees are holders of diplomas, first degrees and masters. It is inevitable that one day the head of any organisation may leave and things must continue moving.
LM: Mr Mundoma, during your tenure of office you were involved in many developmental projects in the district such as the Chisumbanje Ethanol Project, what were the challenges you faced as a council in accommodating such a national project?
JM. CRDC was involved in the Chisumbanje Ethanol project which lies in the communal lands and in terms of the law, the land falls under the jurisdiction of RDC. This was the time of the Government of National Unity (GNU) where a certain party with the Minister of Energy and Power Development was not supporting the project and another party was supporting it.
There were situations where certain politicians were persuading villagers to snub the project sighting various issues. This was retrogressive. I don’t want to go too much into the details, but in short I can say the plant was not easy to establish due to political machinations. We are happy that we played our part as a council and succeeded to establish the historic national project and now I can say there is no longer political interference in the operations of the project.
LM: What plans had you put in place as a council in implementing Government policies such as Zim-Asset?
JM: The council was involved in various programmes in embracing the economic blueprint. We had moved mountains towards embracing the infrastructure and housing development cluster. Thousands of residential stands were serviced at Checheche and Glen View, which is a few kilometres outside Chipinge Town. Water has since been availed to the new stands. We are happy that various NGOs were very supportive in embracing some projects of improving service delivery in some wards.
LM: Lastly, what are your plans after retirement?
JM: I am not leaving Chipinge. I am celebrated potato farmer in Chipinge. I hope the Chipinge community will support me as a businessman like what they did during my stint at the helm of CRDC.
Online Reporter