Online Reporter
Belindah Chikandiwa
Herald Correspondent
THE City of Harare has entered a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development to conduct a comprehensive skills audit of its nearly 10 000-strong workforce, a move Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume says is critical to ending the “Tower of Babel” in service delivery and restoring the capital’s dignity.
The partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed today, aims to identify and rectify skills gaps that have paralysed essential services.
In a candid and wide-ranging address, Clr Mafume highlighted the stark contrast between the city’s educated workforce and the deteriorating services on the ground.
“We have engineers, electrical engineers, but we don’t have working traffic lights. We have water engineers, but we have no water in the taps. We have road engineers, but we have no roads,” Mayor Mafume said.
The mayor attributed the systemic failure to a culture where people are appointed to positions they are not skilled for, an act he labelled as “criminal” and a gross “act of misconduct”.
“People want to do jobs that they are not skilled for. Our jobs have got drastic consequences on human beings,” he said.
Mayor Mafume emphasised the necessity of collaborating with the Central Government, stating that the municipality and the ministries are “one seamless entity” with a shared desire to see residents benefit from their taxes and rates.
Looking forward, the mayor cited China’s development of “smart cities” as the benchmark, revealing that the city’s partnership with the Asian nation would see the introduction of smart meters, new sewer treatment plants, and electric buses.
The skills audit, he said, is a cornerstone of this modernisation drive. It will be supported by MOUs with several local universities to ensure a pipeline of skilled graduates.
The initiative is part of a broader push to restore Harare’s lost glory, which includes finalising a new master plan, the first in 25 years and implementing a new enterprise resource planning system to plug financial leaks and chase US$200 million in missing revenue.
“We need to provide safe cities for people… and so forth and so forth,” Mayor Mafume concluded. “So that’s what we are committed to.”
