Bulawayo begins hunt for town clerk

BULAWAYO City Council will have a substantive town clerk by May, the Mayor Councillor, Martin Moyo has said. The town clerk's position fell vacant following the death of Middleton Nyoni in September last year.

The city's chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou has been acting town clerk since August 2014 as Nyoni who had been battling a cancer related illness was on an indefinite sick leave.

Clr Moyo said only one person has so far applied for the job. "We've started the hunt for a substantive town clerk. We've not received many applications for that post and so far we've received one application. "We hope the process of appointing the town clerk will be completed by the end of April," he said.

The selection process for the job involves short listing and interviewing the candidates. After the interviews, the local authority would forward its recommendations to the Local Government Board for approval. Asked why council cannot just appoint the acting town clerk to the post, Clr Moyo said:

"That might be viewed as favouritism. We hope that she (Zhou) is also going to submit her application. By advertising the job we're trying to get the best candidate for the job."

Zimbabwe's three largest cities Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare have been operating without town clerks following the death of Nyoni and the sacking of Harare's Tendai Mahachi in August last year on three months' notice.

Mutare is operating without a town clerk as Obert Muzawazi resigned following publication of a damning audit report that unearthed corruption and gross mismanagement within the local authority.

The government-commissioned audit report confirmed that the city was operating in contravention of the Urban Councils Act, Public Management Act, and various government policies and rules and procedures.

Mutare City Council was in serious financial crisis as it owed various creditors $19 million while it was also owed $13 million.