Gweru continues hunt for town clerk

Midlands Bureau Chief

GWERU City Council (GCC) has gone back to the public again seeking a potential candidate to fill up the position of town clerk after it postponed interviews two months ago.

At that time the local authority had shortlisted eight candidates to attend interviews.

The local authority has been hunting for a substantive town clerk to replace Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza who was fired in 2019.

Since then, the council has been operating with interim town clerks at the helm, a development that residents blame for the council’s failure to deliver efficient service.

Last year, the local authority placed an advert in the newspapers inviting aspiring candidates to apply to fill the post and the closing date was December 4.

A total of 24 people applied for the job amid indications those who submitted their CVs failed to make the grade resulting in the council re-advertising.

After the screening process, only four out of 24 applicants met the requirements as per the advertisement.

However, the number was not enough for the council to go ahead with the interviews forcing the local authority to re-advertise the vacant post of town clerk.

At the close of the January 3 deadline for new applicants, eight candidates were then invited to attend the February 14 interviews.

In an interview yesterday GCC Mayor, Councillor Martin Chivhoko, confirmed the development.

“We have re-advertised the job of the town clerk after getting some recommendations from our parent ministry (Local Government),” he said.

Clr Chivhoko said there were some alleged anomalies picked from the previous advert, which they have since addressed leading to the re-advertisement of the post.

“So, we got some recommendations on the alleged anomalies and we are inviting interested candidates to apply for the post,” he said.

The post fell vacant following the dismissal of Ms Gwatipedza who was found guilty on three charges that included disobeying a lawful order to submit her contract of employment and those of other departmental heads.

She was also found guilty of gross incompetence in the performance of her work after she failed to comply with the audit and supervise the finance department.

After her dismissal, GCC appointed its chamber secretary Mr Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe as the acting town clerk before he later resigned alleging persecution and victimisation by the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) councillors.

Before his resignation, Mr Chikwekwe had been on suspension following his arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

It was alleged that he violated tender procedures resulting in companies, Sheasham, Casas and Wackdrive winning tenders to service Mkoba 21 and Randolph Phase 1 suburb stands.

Mr Chikwekwe’s criminal abuse of office matter was, however, withdrawn when he appeared before a Gweru provincial magistrate. He was replaced by the city’s finance director Mr Livingston Churu.