Harare — Harare City councillors hit back at people accusing them of being of a "low calibre" because "over half of them have more than five Ordinary Level subjects" and they are therefore "over-qualified" for the job.

In separate interviews yesterday, the councillors said it was "misplaced" to talk of the education of councillors when the law was silent on the issue.

Presently, the only statutory requirement for one to qualify to stand in local government elections is that the candidate must reside in the ward that they intend to represent. Councillor Thomas Muzuva of Kambuzuma said more than half the councillors had passed five or more subjects at O-Level, a qualification he said was enough to allow one to be a municipal leader.

He, however, said some councillors had been assigned to committees where they could not apply their competencies and hence it looked as if they were not qualified to do the job. Clr Muzuva also blamed Government for delaying the induction course that was held last week, a year after the councillors assumed office.

Mayor Mr Muchadeyi Masunda and Harare residents have accused councillors of lacking the requisite skills to oversee a municipality. However, Clr Muzuva said councillors were not imposed on the people hence any discussion about their qualities and suitability should not dominate discussion forums.

"I totally disagree with Mr Masunda. As long as one is elected that is the best qualification. It is us without degrees that are complaining about the shoddy service delivery. "We need our roads to be repaired and clean water in our houses," he said.

Clr Resias Masunda of Kuwadzana Extension said management and not councillors should possess minimum educational qualifications. "The people who are educated back in the wards chose us to work for them. We do not need degrees to articulate their concerns," he said.

On the issue of appointed councillors, he said Government should have appointed leading businesspeople, church leaders and transporters to cater for special interests.

Clr Joyce Kariwo said women should have been appointed as special interest councillors to cater for the glaring shortage of women. There are only five female councillors out of the total 46 elected ones and none of the 11 appointed councillors is a woman.

Clr Wellington Chikombo defended his fellow councillors, saying none in the present council was below capacity. "I do not see anyone with low capacity. I am satisfied with the calibre of my fellow councillors. In fact we are over educated for these posts," he said.

Other councillors felt Mr Masunda had stirred a hornet's nest by starting the debate but officials from across the city's departments agreed with Mr Masunda and expressed disappointment with the manner councillors conducted business. The officials felt the councillors dwelt on trivial issues instead of passing sound resolutions.

Mr Masunda last week expressed dismay at the calibre of both elected and appointed councillors and implored Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo to appoint genuine special interest councilllors to complement "the glaring shortcomings of the 46 democratically elected councillors".

City residents concurred with Mr Masunda and called for a thorough vetting of prospective councillors to weed out chancers and pretenders. Residents demanded that councillors be qualified in such fields as engineering, town planning and finance and be deployed in appropriate standing committees.

Minister Chombo last week defended his appointments saying the special interests councillors were qualified in finance, business administration, town planning and law.

He said if there were any shortcomings, training workshops would be conducted to address the deficiencies.