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Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council is set to recruit experts to cover up councillors’ shortcomings in conducting council business, Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni revealed yesterday.

He said there were skills he felt must be brought on board to execute their mandate.

“With my fellow councillors, we will soon do a specific review of any areas which are generally or currently not covered fully by the current team of elected representatives and find ways of filling any specific needs.

“The needs, if assessed and confirmed, could be met through advisers, associates, volunteers or consultants etc and, like I suggested in my speech before, electoral inclusion,” he said.

Clr Manyenyeni took the opportunity to address misconceptions created by a story attributed to him recently where he reportedly said some councillors were functionally illiterate.

“The remarks I made about the need for certain specific skills and experience in council have been exaggerated, if not distorted, in particular in both headings of stories carried in leading daily papers.

“At no point in my speech did I use “functionally illiterate” or “uneducated”. I mentioned certain skills which I feel must be brought on board to complement our mandate. I am sure that the task before us requires legal minds, technical people, finance people, certain experience and exposure, etc. This should not be contested given the history, size and extent of our mission to serve the cities,” he said.

Clr Manyenyeni said the remarks he made were in good faith for the future of councils, but may have hurt some people in and outside council and eroded the images and esteem of some councillors.

He said the outcome was completely unintended.

Successive MDC-T-dominated councils have been rapped for presiding over the chaos in Harare in disregard of city by-laws, the proliferation of illegal settlements, the kombi and pirate taxi menace as well as vending on the streets.

Former mayor Harare Mr Muchadeyi Masunda once raised similar concerns about the literacy.