HARARE – Former permanent secretary in the Primary and Secondary Education ministry Sylvia Utete-Masango snubbed a farewell party held for her last week amid reports she was apoplectic with fury over her retrenchment.
Utete-Masango — one of the long-serving officials who was shown the exit door on account of her advanced age — did not pitch up for her farewell party held at the ministry’s head office in apparent protest.
Utete-Masango suggested to the Daily News yesterday that she did not turn up because she felt she had been disrespected by her former employer.
Apparently, she wanted a party exclusively for herself, yet the ministry staged a party for her and six other directors, who are her juniors.
“I did not attend because I felt that as an accounting officer of the ministry, I cannot be lumped together with some directors including those from provinces, so really if there is a
genuine appetite to have a farewell party for me then it will come,” Utete-Masango said. Primary and Secondary Education minister Paul Mavima was not picking calls when he was contacted for comment.
While the official reason given for their removal from office was that they were due for retirement after reaching the mandatory pensionable age of 65 for government officials, the affected permanent secretaries were largely those perceived to have been sympathetic to the
PF.