Opinion / Columnist
Ideological orientation of council officials unconstitutional
13 Apr 2021 at 06:38hrs | Views
THE MDC Alliance is extremely concerned over the latest move by Zanu-PF to take council staff members throughout the country through a partisan ideological orientation programme at the Chitepo School of Ideology.
Council employees such as chief executives, town clerks and secretaries are being forced to enrol for the ideological training programme.
The Constitution clearly prohibits civil servants and senior employees of councils from being partisan.
It is evident that taking these functionaries through a political party's school of ideology is intended to cause these civil servants to pursue a Zanu-PF agenda in circumstances where the law and basic principles of corporate governance require them to be impartial, professional and focused on service delivery not the pursuit of toxic politics in the execution of their duties.
The improper conflation of State and party is one of the main reasons why there is no appetite on the part of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's regime to implement the constitutional imperative devolution.
This has hamstrung the operations of councils and led to poor service delivery. Council staff are now controlled by Zanu-PF which has exerted undue influence on matters of staff recruitment, procurement, budgeting and service delivery.
The planned ideological training is designed to brainwash council officials and entrench the dysfunctional state of local authorities.
We call for an immediate end to the planned training and ideological orientation programme. The Constitution must be observed in full including through the respect of council staff 's obligation to be impartial and professional as well as the urgent implementation of devolution so that local authorities can be properly equipped to provide quality service for the benefit of the people. This ideal lies at the centre of our people's agenda and our local government reform agenda.
Council employees such as chief executives, town clerks and secretaries are being forced to enrol for the ideological training programme.
The Constitution clearly prohibits civil servants and senior employees of councils from being partisan.
It is evident that taking these functionaries through a political party's school of ideology is intended to cause these civil servants to pursue a Zanu-PF agenda in circumstances where the law and basic principles of corporate governance require them to be impartial, professional and focused on service delivery not the pursuit of toxic politics in the execution of their duties.
The improper conflation of State and party is one of the main reasons why there is no appetite on the part of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's regime to implement the constitutional imperative devolution.
This has hamstrung the operations of councils and led to poor service delivery. Council staff are now controlled by Zanu-PF which has exerted undue influence on matters of staff recruitment, procurement, budgeting and service delivery.
The planned ideological training is designed to brainwash council officials and entrench the dysfunctional state of local authorities.
We call for an immediate end to the planned training and ideological orientation programme. The Constitution must be observed in full including through the respect of council staff 's obligation to be impartial and professional as well as the urgent implementation of devolution so that local authorities can be properly equipped to provide quality service for the benefit of the people. This ideal lies at the centre of our people's agenda and our local government reform agenda.
Source - Sesel Zvidzai MDC Alliance secretary for local government and rural development
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