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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
The Office of the President and Cabinet has challenged Harare City Council to be innovative and creative, based on the cultural drive of always wanting to serve people in a transparent and accountable manner. Speaking at the City’s Second Hundred Days Rapid Results Initiative End of Term Review Workshop yesterday, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Ray Ndhlukula said there was need for a culture of constant and consistent citizen engagement.

He said the council needed to work collaboratively with Central Government and other development partners in implementing strategic plans.

“Government is committed to continuously reform all public sector institutions in order to realise their purpose in life, that is, to offer high quality services in a reputable, accountable, effective and efficient manner in order to meet the contemporary needs of the citizenry,” said Dr Ndhlukula.

“For improved service delivery to be attained, the implementation of policies, programmes and projects in the City of Harare should be done underpinned by the business unusual mentality, characterised by singleness of purpose and the desire to make the citizens of Harare happy through sustainable quality service delivery.”

Dr Ndhlukula said Harare, as the capital city, had shown the strategic leadership in pioneering the implementation of Rapid Results Approach for local authorities to learn and get enthused from its case as they prepared to embrace and implement similar reforms.

He said local authorities had many challenges, which required a leadership committed and passionate for organisational transformation, as well as managing for development results.

Dr Ndhlukula said local authorities should be bastions for good governance and servanthood.

The reforms are aimed at reviewing and streamlining processes, systems and structural issues that affect the capital city on doing business for both existing and prospective ones, as well as delivery of quality services to the residents of Harare.

The implementation of the reforms are part of Government’s broader agenda of implementing Zim-Asset and the 10 Point Plan for Economic Growth. Acting town clerk Mrs Josephine Ncube said she had emphasised to council employees the need for commitment and single minded focus on achieving results

“We have realised that Rapid Results cannot stand on its own without broader reforms under an integrated performance management framework,” she said.

“We will ensure that there is performance measurement, monitoring and evaluation and communication of results to our stakeholders.

“We have, therefore, not only placed executives in results based system. We are now cascading the system to middle managers.

“The journey has, therefore, enabled us to establish a new way of delivering services, which together with the decentralisation of service delivery, will bring our city to a new level in quest to achieve a World Class City status by 2025.”