Staff exodus at Gwanda RDC sparks concerns

Gwanda Rural District Councillors have expressed concern over the high turnover of council management staff, which they believe is impeding the progress of development projects in the area.

During the recent full council meeting, councillors raised the alarm over the resignation of the RDC engineer, urging the council to address the underlying issues causing these resignations.

Councillor Nyoni voiced his concerns about the situation, stating, "Council management is leaving, but those in lower positions are staying. If life is hard, why aren't those in lower positions also leaving? CEO, we are tasking you to look into this. We need to tell each other the truth. If this continues, it will cripple the council."

Nyoni noted that council management employees do not stay long before resigning.

"We have new people all the time. Employees stay for one or two years and then leave. We no longer know the names of those who come and go in such a short space of time. At this rate, we won't achieve our goals."

He stressed the need for the council and human resources to understand the challenges.

"There is a need to find out where the problem is. Is it the management, CEO, councillors, or remunerations? We need to address the issue of management resignations. We are still in the process of advertising Sithole's position, and now an engineer has resigned. Where are we going as a council?"

Another councillor echoed Nyoni's sentiments, warning that resigning employees might share misleading information about their reasons for leaving. A different councillor suggested a more thorough recruitment process to ensure candidates are genuinely committed to the council.

Additionally, another councillor proposed that the council prioritise internal promotions to fill vacancies.

"The turnover that has been there mostly we replaced by outsourcing. Can't we promote the junior staff or the staff that is already here? It will be easier to carry on the projects that are there. If we continue to outsource every time, it will kill the projects. For example, we have an acting engineer in place. We bring in another engineer and we start from scratch. I am concerned with those we are leaving here because everyone when they get employed focuses on growth, so can we allow our existing staff to grow," he said.

In response, Gwanda RDC Council Chair Mphathiswa Ncube acknowledged the need to retain council management employees. "Even in our master plan, you noticed under administration, there are some things written on motivating our employees," he said.

Ncube also requested that the council look for employees inside the council before seeking employees outside.

"It's a concern that people come here and work for just three weeks then they go to America, but when we recruit within, they will have a mind of ownership and be jealous when they see the council crippling."

Gwanda RDC CEO Ranganai Sibanda said they conducted exit interviews to ascertain the challenges faced by the leaving employees.

"The view is that when someone is leaving, we do exit interviews. We did that with the outgoing engineer and we didn't get any complaints. He cited personal reasons, but maybe someone may fail to tell us the real reason," he said.