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Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
Chairperson of the commission running the affairs of Chitungwiza Municipality Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira has said council’s acting district officers are failing to execute their duties diligently. Mr Pawadyira said this during a full council meeting last week after human resources manager Mrs Mary Mukonyora asked for authority to lift the moratorium on recruitment for the positions of housing manager, estates officer and community service officer.

“These positions were frozen in 2014 and we are requesting to recruit the same, including four district officers, which are currently incapacitated.  The reason being that when council came up with the current organogram, the highlighted posts were frozen. For the district officers, the posts have been vacant since then, so our recommendation is that subject to the approval of the ministry, council approves the request to unfreeze the positions,” said Mrs Mukonyora. In response, Mr Pawadyira said the current staff manning the districts were useless .

“The current staff you have in the district offices do not know what they do,” he said. “ You want to add more confusion? Where will they be stationed?” Mrs Mukonyora noted that the staff working at district offices were engaged on an acting capacity.

“Those four district officers were acting and the positions are vacant, so we are seeking authority to recruit as well as unfreezing those positions,” she said. That further irked Mr Pawadyira.

“What worries me is that the positions you are talking about of officers are occupied by people who have never been to school,” he said.
“As we speak, that is the reason why they have run out of ideas, they cannot do anything. You spend the whole day sitting, waiting for someone to come and prod their backsides to get up to do something.” Acting Town Clerk Ms Charity Maunga said engaging full-time officers would help ensure staff that was committed to duty.

“We want people who are substantive and competent because where one is not substantive the level of commitment is not 100 percent,” she said.