Financial Gazette (Harare)
Charles Rukuni
22 August 2008
Bulawayo — The hunt for a town clerk for Bulawayo, the third in 15 months, is on once again, with this Monday as the deadline for the submission of applications for the top municipal job following the scrapping of the executive mayor's post.
Bulawayo has been without a substantive town clerk since October last year following the death of Stanley Donga, who had been the deputy city treasurer, after just a month in office.
The post was initially advertised with February 21 as the deadline for the submission of applications.
It is not clear what happened to those applications as the local authority was dissolved before the March 29 harmonised elections.
Konzani Ncube is currently running the City Council in an acting capacity.
The Ministry of Local Govern-ment and Public Works seconded Ncube to the local authority.
Newly elected councillors felt there was no need for this meddling because the chamber secretary normally holds the fort in the absence of a town clerk.
The election of Bulawayo's new ceremonial mayor was almost disrupted when councillor Amen Mpofu challenged the presiding officer, Leonard Ncube, from the Ministry of Local Government, to explain why the government had flouted the Urban Councils Act by sidelining the chamber secretary and imposing someone from outside.
Mpofu was later elected deputy mayor.
Though the issue of appointing a town clerk was expected to explode at the first full meeting of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Tsvangirai-dominated council, it did not arise.
Sources say the matter was discussed when the full council sat as a committee in a closed session from which the public and the media were barred.
According to a source, councillors demanded that Konzani Ncube, who attended the meeting as the acting town clerk, be relieved of the post.
The matter was resolved when a circular from the Ministry of Local Govern-ment, explaining that she would only be in office for six months or until the council identified own town clerk of its choice, was produced.
There are, however, still some misgivings because advertisements for the post stipulate that applications should be addressed to the town clerk, which in this case if a reference to Ncube.
However, she is reported to have assured councillors that she is not interested in the post.
The appointment of the council's chief executive has raised eyebrows since the departure of Moffat Ndlovu last year when Donga, who was then deputy town, filled the gap.
The post of deputy town clerk was then abolished and replaced with that of chamber secretary.
Last year Bulawayo broke with tradition by inviting external applications. This resulted in Gwanda town clerk, Gilbert Mlilo, being selected as the best candidate for the job.
His selection was however, opposed by some councillors who accused former executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube of trying to sideline Bulawayo City Council staffers who had worked with him when he served as deputy director of housing.
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