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Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Correspondent
Government has appointed a three-member commission to preside over Harare City Council business before the swearing-in of new councillors.

The commission will be chaired by Ms Bella Manyakara while the other two members are Mr Shingai Mutumbwa and Mrs C. Kampila.

The appointment of the commission comes 10 days after the country held the 2018 harmonised elections on July 30 in which President Mnangagwa was declared the winner with 50,8 percent of the vote. He is expected to be inaugurated on Sunday.

According to the city’s official Facebook account, the appointment of the commission is provided for in Section 80 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15).

According to the Act, “the Minister (of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing) may appoint commissioners to act as council”.

“The commission will preside over Harare on an interim basis until the new council is sworn in. The commission will not make any far-reaching decisions on behalf of council without consulting Government and shall not engage in land/stands allocations,’’ reads the Facebook page.

According to a memo from Government, the commission is barred from entering into agreements involving joint ventures and will not engage in acquisition or disposal of council property.

“The commission will not recruit new staff and is barred from dealing with tenders,” the Facebook page continues.

The previous council was made up of 46 ward-based councillors representing the MDC-T and ZANU-PF as well as one independent.

Meanwhile, Harare’s Acting Town Clerk, Engineer Hosiah Chisango, has slammed some council departments for failing to meet set targets under the city’s 500-day rapid results initiative.

Addressing delegates at the review of the city’s fifth rapid results initiative on Wednesday, Eng Chisango said the local authority should quickly transform to meet the demands of the new administration ushered in by the just-ended harmonised elections.

“We have gone through 500 days and from the weekly trackers since the mid-term review, I can sense some form of reform fatigue which we need to deal with,” he said.

“This end of term review workshop is coming at a time when important changes have taken place in our country. We went through the harmonised elections on July 30 and this will usher in a new council and a new Government. This, therefore, means that we will have new policy direction.

“The previous Government emphasised the need for the public sector to focus on peak performance and we are convinced that this mantra will continue for the development of the country. Peak performance is a major issue that we need to pay attention to.”

Eng Chisango said although the rapid results initiatives were strenuous, they were worth considering as that had introduced a new culture of reporting results which had been lacking in council.

“We have gone through 500 days and we have had our fair share of successes and not so good results,” he said. “One key success over the past 500 days is the development of the investment policy.

“An investment desk in the Office of the Town Clerk was created as a response to one of the key recommendations in the policy.

“It is my hope that the culture of reporting has been entrenched in our teams. I, therefore, expect all teams who had not achieved their goals to continue reporting fortnightly to enable us to track progress and make necessary interventions where necessary.

“With the rapid results initiatives we expect dramatic results and a business unusual approach.”

Eng Chisango applauded council for the goals that it had implemented during the fifth phase which included the review of the masterplan, streamlining procurement and automation.