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He is a fairly skilled man, who also runs a business at Lupane Centre, so Mr Stobart was expected to complement existing expertise at policy-making level in the rural district council. However, like many councillors appointed to serve in councils in which the majority of councillors are directly elected, he found council chambers unwelcoming and decided to leave in July 2010. It was impossible for him; working in what he recalls was a hostile environment as elected MDC-T councillors constantly mocked him during council meetings.
“Elected councillors did not know how to handle my appointment,” he said.
“They acted as if I had appointed myself yet the district administrator recommended me to Minister (Ignatius) Chombo, who then appointed me. It was just impossible working there.”
Section 4A (b) of the Urban Councils’ Act (UCA), gives the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development authority to appoint councillors to represent special interests.
The number of appointed councillors must not exceed a quarter of the number of elected councillors and they shall hold office for a period determined by the minister.
Part (2) of Section 4A says appointed councillors shall participate in the business of the municipality or town council and are entitled to the same benefits in every respect as if they were elected councillors. However, they have no voting powers. The legal provisions passed through Parliament as part of Constitutional Amendment Number 18 of 2008.
But the appointments in a number of councils like Harare, Bulawayo and Lupane have raised a lot of dust. MDC-T councillors accuse Minister Chombo of seeking to undermine their authority by making what they deem political appointments, not experts to help enhance service delivery.
In Harare, Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, an MD-T appointee himself, has criticised six of the 11 special interest councillors saying they lacked technical expertise to add value to council work. He has urged Minister Chombo to revoke their appointments.
In Bulawayo, council has actually refused to swear in 11 people whom the minister appointed a few months ago. The local authority and Minister Chombo are locked in a fresh dispute over his latest appointment of disability activist, Mr Fidelis Fengu, as special interest councillor. Council has refused to swear him into office since he was appointed on 22 November last year. Their position was helped last week when the High Court interdicted Town Clerk, Mr Middleton Nyoni, from swearing Mr Fengu into office. The appointee is an educated person with three degrees and is a campaigner for the rights of the disabled.
One big weakness of local politics, said Alderman Jerry Gotora, who is also former president of the Zimbabwe Local Government Association, is that people elect candidates on party lines, not necessarily the skills a person has. In Bulawayo for instance, a professional/educational report leaked in March last year showed that almost half of the city’s 29 councillors held Standard Six, Zimbabwe Junior (Form 2), referees’ and dress-making certificates and drivers’ licences as their highest “educational qualifications.”
Councillor Norman Hlabani had two years secondary education and is a dressmaker. Clr Thembani Khoza held cookery and netball umpire certificates. Clr Lot Siziba boasted of a Standard Six certificate and a driver’s licence. Clr Edward Manning, who made headlines a few months ago, resisting eviction from a flat for which he had failed or neglected to pay rent, was listed as a self-employed trader. No qualifications were listed.
Such deficiencies, said Ald Gotora, encouraged the Government to come up with the law permitting the responsible minister to second experts as councillors.
“Democracy does not necessarily produce the best outcomes,” said Ald Gotora.
“Open franchise is ok as a tenet of democracy, but there is no guarantee that an election will produce an engineer in council; there is no guarantee that an election would produce a lawyer in council, or an accountant. That is the responsibility of the Government to look at those deficiencies in councils and make the necessary appointments so that service delivery is not compromised. There is nothing wrong with this.”
In efforts to ensure that skilled people are voted as councillors from the outset rather than having to appoint later, the Government is proposing to introduce minimum educational qualifications for aspirants. This would entail amending the law to provide for qualifications.
As the debate continues, some analysts have argued that imposing minimum educational qualifications for those seeking office is unnecessary since key council employees like town clerks, finance directors or directors of engineering are specialists who can assist uneducated councillors.
However, a special interest councillor for Gweru, Mr Stephen Chakaipa, who is also a local government expert, said critical councillors’ work is done in committees whose members are councillors.
“The finance committee must have councillors or at least one, who has an accounting background. If none, it means whatever the council finance director says will not be given thorough interrogation. It is simply rubber-stamped. This can be dangerous,” said Mr Chakaipa, the Dean of the Faculty of Local Government at Midlands State University.
He said contrary to the popular view that appointed councillorship is a new phenomenon; the country has had them before. During the rural councils’ era before they were enlarged into rural district councils soon after independence, councils had people representing key stakeholders like mining companies and farmers operating in a given district.
“Special interest councillors are necessary but two things are critical,” he said.
“The first one is the attitude of fellow councillors and the second one is the selection process. In Gweru where I am a special interest councillor, there is no problem. The whole debate is about attitude issues. Do fellow councillors give you space to make a difference or you are looked with political eyes; kuti ava vanhu vaminister (This is a ministerial appointee). I think if the appointed people add more value to council, there would be no problem. Many councils lack important skills like engineering, accounting, law and so on, so that is where the minister comes in.”
Bulawayo United Residents’ Association chairman, Mr Winos Dube, urged the Bulawayo City Council to recognise not only the law, but also the specialist role Mr Fengu could play in promoting the interests of people living with disabilities. He regretted that political polarisation was clouding the good intentions of the law on appointed councillors.
“If the law says so, that is it,” he said.
“But it is unfortunate that in our set-up, we are highly polarised. We don’t have objectivity. There is no middle line; you have to be this side or that one. Even the town clerks, who are supposed to be professionals advising councillors, are in politics too. We would have wanted a situation where professionals remain professionals and politicians remain politicians.”
Mr Stobart urged the Government to clearly define the concept of special interest that an appointee would represent. This, he said, can help ensure that elected councillors appreciate the role the appointed representative would play, as a result, prevent hostility.
Mr Chakaipa said the role of the mayor is also important in giving appointed representatives space to work. He praised Gweru Mayor, Clr Tedious Chimombe, for sound leadership which has helped the city’s four special interest councillors to settle in.
“Here, a stranger to council cannot see who is a special interest or elected councillor. It’s all fine and I think this is partly due to how Mayor Chimombe handles the situation,” he said.
Overal, Mr Chakaipa is hopeful that the general conflict between central government and councils over appointed councillors would soon be overcome.
“It is a teething problem which will fall away with time as trust builds. Gradually elected councillors will appreciate that they lack certain skills which these people can provide for the good of service delivery,” he said.
Online Reporter