Harare town clerk holds on to appointment letter refuses to leave office

Harare Residents Trust has reported that the squabbles at the Harare town house are far from over as the recently appointed town clerk James Mushore is reportedly refusing to step out and holds onto  his appointment letter which gives him the right to be in office.

"The battles at Town House are far from over regarding the appointment of the Town Clerk. Mrs Josephine is the Acting Town Clerk while  Mushore holds on to his letter of acceptance of the offer for the position of Town Clerk, which he signed before suspended Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni," reported the trust.

The trust said information received is that  Mushore has today instructed Ncube to stop forthwith from acting as the Town Clerk, and demanded that she reports to his office on 2 June 2016 at 10am.

The trust said this is a confused situation.

"The City of Harare has the official Acting Town Clerk, appointed in terms of the Urban Councils Act, and the improperly appointed  Mushore, whose appointment is not yet completed," said the trust.

"In terms of the Urban Councils Act, the names of the candidates selected through an interview process have to be submitted to the Local Government Board (LGB), which has to interview the candidates shortlisted by the local authority, before it makes its decision on who of the top candidates becomes the Town Clerk."

The trust said sadly, the City of Harare interviewed the candidates, and without submitting the top shortlisted candidates to the LGB, decided to ignore that route, and went on to claim that they had appointed  Mushore.

"The HRT stands guided by the Constitution and the Urban Councils Act, and argues that Mushore is improperly at Town House, and his appointment has to fulfill all the requirements of the law where he has to undergo an interview process led by the LGB, before he is either confirmed or rejected. One of the three top candidates could be the Town Clerk. The three as announced by the City of Harare are Jacob Mutisi,  Mushore and Godfrey Pasipanodya, and their names, alongside other procedural documents, had to be submitted to the LGB for the final leg of the recruitment of the Town Clerk.," said the trust.

"In our view, Mushore's contestation is before the Courts, and before this matter is disposed of, the residents should not be burdened with paying him and for his stay at Town House. Ncube is the Acting Town Clerk."

"She participated in the interviews, but was not shortlisted among the top three. However, the reality of the situation is that she is currently the Acting Town Clerk, and will continue to be so until the issue of the recruitment of the Town Clerk is resolved, either by the Courts, or by the LGB, who have the administrative responsibility to deal with senior council management recruitment."

The HRT,  said as a principle believes that the law should be followed to the letter without compromising it on the altar of political expediency.

"The continued fights over this matter at Town House hinders the provision of an efficient service to the citizenry at a time the council has failed to pay salaries to municipal employees for the past six months," said the trust.

"If the LGB fails to resolve this with urgency, then the HRT will also be left with no option but to approach the Courts to expedite the resolution of this confused situation, which largely disadvantages the citizenry."