Harare City Council on Thursday resolved to send names of three successful candidates for the position of town clerk to the Local Government Board (LGB) for consideration.
The three are Engineer Hosiah Chisango who scored 1 052 points, former Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) finance director Robert Mangwiro 903 points and a University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eugine Makaya who managed 852 points.
A special council meeting held yesterday resolved to forward the name of Mangwiro despite that he was dismissed by Zimra after being found guilty of 21 counts of misconduct in 2016.
Mangwiro challenged the dismissal at the Labour Court, claiming the conviction was made in error, but the disciplinary committee maintained that a dismissal was appropriate in light of the conviction. Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni said council had resolved that Mangwiro’s name should be forwarded on the principle that everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty
“We met as council to receive the recommendations of the Human Resources and General Purposes Committee on the interviewing process for the next Town Clerk for the City of Harare,” he said.
“The recommendations were acceptable after a lot of debate. As you appreciate, there are indications that in the public space there are challenges facing one of the aspirants for the position.
“The position that we have adopted is that everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty, so the recommendations are proceeding as per the outcome of the interviews, so there will be no objections on this particular matter that is still under consideration.”
Queried on when the public can expect the appointment of the new town clerk after LGB approval, Clr Manyenyeni said, “We have no idea. The Local Government Board operate at their own space and if you ask me l do not even know how often they meet. We engage them when we have a position for senior management.”
During council’s debate on Mangwiro’s case, acting chamber secretary Charles Kandemiri said council had the legal right to vary, alter or reject the recommendations from the human resources committee.
He said in terms of the Urban Council’s Act, it did not specify the number of candidates that council should refer to the LGB.
“If council is convinced that candidate number two has some misconduct it is not pleased about, council has the power to remove him,” said Kandemiri.
“It is subject to council to decide because this is a recommendation.”
Harare has failed to fill the position over 30 months owing to various reasons with the latest attempt seeing a consultant going through over 127 applications, with only 11 candidates being shortlisted for the position.
The post fell vacant in 2014 after Dr Tendai Mahachi’s retirement.