Harare — HARARE mayor Mr Muchadeyi Masunda has clashed with Local Government and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo over the calibre of elected and appointed councillors.

Mr Masunda has described the councillors as "mediocre". He said democracy does not always produce the best people, referring to the 46 elected councillors.

"Some of these councillors have no capacity. Democracy does not always produce the best," he said. Harare has an additional 11 special interest councillors appointed by Minister Chombo whose qualifications are supposed to make up for the shortcomings of the elected ones.

The 46 elected councillors appointed Mr Masunda as mayor at the behest of MDC-T. But Minister Chombo defended all the councillors and suggested Mayor Masunda organise training workshops to sharpen their leadership and administrative skills.

Mr Masunda made the remarks last Friday during a ceremony to receive US$17 million from the Government to be used in upgrading the city's water and sewer services. Mr Masunda asked Minister of Finance Tendai Biti to influence Minister Chombo to appoint special interest councillors with the requisite skills.

"We need genuine special interest councillors. We need people with strong engineering and accounting backgrounds. There are glaring shortcomings among the 46 democratically-elected councillors. We need to complement the skills that they do not have," he said. Mr Masunda said the appointment of special interest councillors should not be based on party political lines adding that service delivery should not be politicised.

"Sadly, some of the people we work with do not have the interests of the city and country at heart," he said in apparent reference to Minister Chombo who appoints special interest councillors. Mr Masunda said there were several people with the requisite skills to serve the city who had been overlooked.

Contacted for comment, Minister Chombo defended the special interest councillors saying all had degrees in different fields such as business, finance and law while others were accomplished farmers and businesspeople.

"I am happy with the appointments I made. The councillors are doing exceptionally well. They are very knowledgeable. We gave them a wealth of knowledge. Success is there in council because of these professionals," he said.

Minister Chombo said Mr Masunda was entitled to express his opinions adding that his sentiments were a manifestation of the frustrations of the city's non-performance.

"We are giving them more time to deliver. We want delivery, delivery, delivery," he said. Minister Chombo said he was very happy to work with all the 46 elected councillors

"Whether educated or not, they were elected by the people. If they have shortcomings we will mount training courses. He should assist them to rise to the required levels," said Minister Chombo.

Secretary for Local Government Mr Killian Mpingo defended the appointments saying it was at Minister Chombo's discretion to identify the missing competencies within the council.

"The minister is quite happy with the appointments," he said. The attack on the quality of councillors was made in the presence of Mr Mpingo who was representing the ministry in the absence of Minister Chombo.