The Sunday News
Harare Bureau
DR Charles Utete was an unassuming torchbearer who quietly shaped Zimbabwe’s Government, working behind the scenes to create a civil service that could meet the country’s ever-changing development needs, President Mugabe has said. Dr Utete served as Secretary to then Prime Minister Mugabe and as Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet from 1981 to 2003.
The highly respected veteran mandarin collapsed and died at his home in Harare on Friday. In a condolence message sent last night from Rwanda where he is attending to African Union business, President Mugabe spoke passionately about a dedicated public servant who went beyond the call of duty in executing a weighty mandate.
“An intellectual of renown, Dr Utete was at the centre of the transformation of our civil service from what it was at Independence, ensuring its rapid Africanisation but without compromising on systems, efficiency and best practices,” President Mugabe said.
He went on: “This was no small task given the entrenched white Rhodesian ethos which had made the civil service a key lever of settler rule, black discrimination and oppression. “Given his prior association with the liberation movement and vast knowledge in the tenets of public administration, we did not hesitate to appoint him to this key post which he discharged with distinction.
“As head of the civil service, he was at the centre of service delivery, always coordinating the drafting of policy initiatives which saw the new Government record key milestones, including reconciling a war-torn society, rehabilitating and re-integrating thousands of war displaced, as well as embarking on successive programmes of socio-economic transformation that underpinned our espousal and commitment to majority rule.”
President Mugabe said the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987 and its attendant constitutional changes creating an Executive Presidency in 1988, Dr Utete “characteristically rose to the occasion, again playing a seminal role in readjusting the massive bureaucracy to the requirements and challenges implied by the new political and administrative situation”.
The Head of State and Government said this load was “made heavier by successive shifts in economic policies which followed as the country tried out various models of growth and social development”.
President Mugabe said, “When Government embarked on the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme in 2000, Dr Utete found himself once again at the centre of even more taxing planning challenges which he managed admirably.
“A loyal, committed team player, the late Dr Utete’s services went far beyond the duties of a civil servant, readily making seminal inputs to key party policies which helped Zanu-PF deal with emerging issues and challenges.
“What I personally found admirable about him was his humility and self-effacement against such a lofty role and his multiple contributions. He never beat his drum. “It was the mark of the man who even after leaving Government in 2003, continued to accept and discharge assignments we continued to load on him in his ‘retirement’.”
The President said Zimbabwe would forever remember Dr Utete’s services to land reforms via his chairmanship of the Presidential Review Commission. “On behalf of the party, Zanu-PF, the Government which he helped shape and which he served whole-heartedly, and on my own behalf, I wish to express my deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Utete family, especially to Mrs Utete and the children who have lost such a loving and caring husband and father respectively.
“We robbed them of much of what would have been family time, and for their unconditional forbearance, but we in Government are truly grateful for his service and loyalty. “As they grieve over the untimely death demise of the late departed, may they derive solace and comfort in his having served his nation well and truly, which today salutes and thanks him heartily as he joins his Maker.”
Born in Chivhu on 30 October 1938, Dr Utete did his schooling at Kwenda Mission, Tegwani High and Goromonzi High schools. He attended the University of Rhodesia and in 1963 graduated with a BSc (Honours) in Economics, before furthering his studies in the United States (Master’s in Political Science, Tufts University), Canada (MA and PhD in International Relations and Public Administration, University of Ottawa).
Dr Utete went back to the US and lectured there, before returning to Zimbabwe in 1979 to join the University of Rhodesia as a senior lecturer in Political Science before serving as Dean of the Faculty of Social Affairs.
In February 1981, Dr Utete was appointed Secretary to Prime Minister Mugabe, and then Secretary to Cabinet in 1983 — a post he would hold for 20 years. After his retirement in April 2003, Dr Utete headed the Presidential Land Review Commission, which assessed progress in implementation of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.
He also served and/or chaired various boards, including Cairns Holdings, the Industrial Development Corporation, Seed Co Zimbabwe, Zimpapers (1980) Limited and Astra Industries Ltd, as well as being patron of Chivhu District Hospital.
He is survived by his wife, Verna, and five children.
