The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO councillors have in the past been illegally interviewing individuals for council senior officials, a prerogative which according to the Urban Councils Act is meant to be carried out by a professional body.
Councillors in the city have involved themselves in the recruitment process of all key council positions with council’s general purposes committee even conducting interviews.
The committee comprises the mayor, deputy mayor and councillors who chair the other five key council committees (Finance and Development, Future Water Supplies and Water Action, Health, Housing and Education, Environmental Management and Engineering Services and the Town Lands and Planning committee).
However, investigations by Sunday News revealed that besides the Urban Councils Act, councillors got a directive from the Government last year where it was clearly stated that no councillor should be involved in the interviewing process, a directive which the previous crop of councillors chose to ignore.
“It is of concern to the Ministry (Local Government, Public Works and National Housing) that there is a growing involvement of councillors in administrative matters where the Urban Councils Act and the tenets of good governance clearly assign the functions to the executive of council,” reads part of the circular.
In further clarifying the process, the Government stipulated that in the engagement of a town clerk and town secretary, the interviews had to be carried out by a panel of professionals together with the chairperson of the committee responsible for human resources matters, in this case being the mayor who chairs the general purposes committee.
For heads, deputy heads of department and all other permanent grades the interviews while carried out again by a group of professionals, the interview panel was meant to be chaired by the town clerk or secretary.
In all the scenarios, councillors only get a report of the process and the recommended winning candidates which in the case of the town clerk they then forward to the Local Government Board for approval.
“All local authorities must advertise for the vacant senior management posts, both internally and in a national newspaper. A council may stipulate higher qualifications than those stipulated in this circular but may not advertise for lesser qualifications.
“Any council that has advertised for a vacant post and has repeatedly not received a response to their advertisement may apply to the Minister for exemption from the qualifications laid down. Employment of persons in non-senior management positions should be advertised internally. Candidates can also be sourced from the local national employment services office,” reads the circular.
Contacted for comment, the local authority’s town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube said in terms of employment council was guided by the Urban Councils Act. Councillors in the city have constantly clashed on whom to employ to head key council positions using their influence in the interviewing panel to control who joined the local authority.
Last year the city’s town clerk, Mr Dube and councillors failed to agree on candidates to fill in critical positions within the local authority. According to a council confidential report the local authority went for over two months trying to fill the positions of Deputy Finance Director and Deputy Health Services director as both the town clerk and the councillors were failing to reach common ground.
The position of city economic development officer was also a bone of contention after another long dragging clash, with councillors insisting that a “council son or daughter” deserved to be promoted.
