Harare Mayor calls for council skills audit

Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume has announced plans to conduct a comprehensive skills audit within the city council, aimed at identifying and addressing gaps between available skills and operational demands.

Speaking during a recent full council meeting, Clr Mafume revealed that the audit would be carried out in collaboration with the Government under a forthcoming Memorandum of Agreement.

A team of council officials, including the acting town clerk and acting human capital director, met with representatives from the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development on May 20 to discuss how the exercise will be implemented.

"The issue was last time I raised that some of the skills and the performance of council - there is definitely a mismatch in certain areas," Clr Mafume said.

He emphasised that the audit is part of broader efforts to improve service delivery by ensuring that the right skills are deployed in the right roles across council departments.

"We need to do a skills audit; what skills do we need, how do we need them, and where do we need them - and then we target those skills audited," he said.

The mayor's remarks highlight growing concern over inefficiencies within the municipality, which have often been linked to staff being placed in roles that do not align with their qualifications or experience.

Officials say the skills audit will be an important step toward restructuring the council's human resource framework, with a view to streamlining operations and enhancing service delivery in areas such as waste management, water distribution, and infrastructure maintenance.

The proposed audit is expected to cover all council departments and will feed into broader human capital development strategies being pursued by both local and central government.

Further details of the Memorandum of Agreement and timelines for the audit are expected to be released in the coming weeks.