The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube and Tinomuda Chakanyuka
LOCAL authorities in the country are being run by unqualified personnel occupying strategic positions, while some councils have gone for over five years without substantive heads of departments, a development that could explain the poor service delivery being experienced in urban areas countrywide.
Investigations by this publication revealed that Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has under-qualified personnel manning strategic offices, while Gweru City Council (GCC) only has one substantive head of department out of five.
The cases in the two cities, the second and third largest in the country respectively, could just be a tip of the iceberg.
Bulawayo’s engineering department has a massive backlog in terms of recruitment, with a number of under-qualified individuals occupying strategic departments.
According to leaked documents, Bulawayo City Council’s water department is being headed by a person who holds a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering, when the incumbent should have a qualification in civil engineering.
“The water department which under normal circumstances should be run by a civil engineer registered with Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers is being run by a mechanical engineer who recently returned from Botswana after 20 years there. He was somehow employed without interviews engaged by council and promoted without advertising the position and now he is acting deputy director (water) while council awaits the Local Government Board to ratify their flawed recommendation.
“The acting head of roads (planning), holds a diploma and despite his over 20 years of experience is not registered by the Institution of Engineers, notwithstanding the fact that he supervises engineers with 10 years’ experience with Masters qualification,” reads the document.
It is further alleged that even the interviewing procedures of the local authority were flawed. In one case it is alleged a panel composed of non-engineers conducted an interview for the highly technical job.
“The interviews for principal engineer held in February 2015 were a sham as non-engineering panelists asked very technical engineering questions which they did not have knowledge about to the interviewees. The interview was pre-determined.
“The Human Resources section is further denying the employees their access to rights by withholding and not rolling out and applying the Bulawayo City Council Code of Conduct which was registered at Ministry of Labour in 2012. They are either by error or design delaying the rolling out and operationalisation of this legally binding code,” reads the document.
Contacted for comment, the local authority’s senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu confirmed that the local authority was being caught in a situation where they had to rely on under-qualified personnel to act in positions that had not been filled.
“In the engineering department we have seven vacancies, which are the deputy director of engineering services (water), assistant director engineering services (roads), two principal engineers and three senior engineers.
“In the water branch, it is currently headed by a member of staff with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering with 30 years working experience. He is in an acting capacity. The roads branch, which are divided into three departments; planning, construction and traffic, the planning section is being headed by a diploma holder in an acting capacity. Construction is headed by a principal engineer and the traffic section is headed by a degree holder,” said Mrs Mpofu.
In Gweru, out of the five directors employed by the local authority, only one, Mr Edgar Mwedzi (finance director) is substantive and has the requisite qualifications.
Gweru City Council went for years without a Chamber Secretary following the sacking of Mr Richard Masinire in February 2010, and only appointed Mr Gibson Chingwadza in 2013 to act in that position.
Mr Chingwadza does not have a law degree to be able to head that department as required by statutes.
The acting director of housing and community services, Mrs Unity Jaji has been occupying the office since 2008 and sources at the local authority say she did not have the requisite qualification to be heading the department.
A similar situation is also prevailing in the medical department which is being headed by Mr Christopher Ruwodo, who does not have a medical qualification, and has been acting in that office since 2008.
The engineering services department does not have a substantive director following the retirement of Mr Jones Nanthambwe in 2013, and Mr Praymore Mhlanga has been acting as the director.
Mr Mhlanga, according to council sources, holds a qualification in mechanical engineering, while the posts he occupies requires one to have a civil engineering qualification.
The sources revealed that Gweru City Council was last week given a 10-day ultimatum by the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, to recruit substantive heads of departments with requisite qualifications.
“Yesterday there was a special council meeting to discuss the ultimatum. They (councillors) resolved to advertise three posts first which they felt were critical. That is director of housing, the director of engineering services and the director of health. The chamber secretary’s post will be filled in due course,” said the source.
Gweru Mayor Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone went unanswered yesterday until time to go to press. Town clerk Mr Daniel Matawu was also not answering his mobile phone.
The local authority’s spokesperson Mr Tapiwa Marerwa declined comment.
“I don’t comment on staff issues. Those are confidential matters,” he said.
Contacted for comment on the recruitment and registration procedures of engineers in the country, Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers membership services and training officer, Engineer Wilson Banda said it was now law in the country for any engineer employed by any organisation to be registered with the institution.
He revealed that the country’s laws now made it compulsory for anyone employed as an engineer even in an acting capacity to be registered with the institution.
“All engineers are now regulated by the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe (ECZ) which was brought about by the Engineering Council Act of 2013; this Act clearly stipulates that every practising engineer must be registered failure to which the company and the individual can face prosecution.
“The ECZ has an inspectorate that goes to every organisation to ensure that anyone operating as an engineer has the necessary qualification, the council has also gone on to publish the names of every registered engineer in their website to make it easier for organisations to know whether they are employing anyone with the necessary qualifications because the jobs they do are very critical,” said Eng Banda.
He revealed that they had a number of scenarios where people masqueraded as engineers but they go on to mess up in their companies which resulted in huge losses.
According to the Engineering Council Act there is a need for all engineers to be registered and get practising licences. The registration process so far in Zimbabwe is through the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers.
A quick browse of the list of registered engineers revealed that even the director of engineering services in Bulawayo, Mr Simela Dube was not registered with the council.
