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Mrs Ncube

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Government is set to introduce productivity benchmarking in local authorities as it seeks to turnaround the fortunes of councils, most of whom are struggling to provide basic services like safe drinking water and refuse collection.

The programme, which is reposed in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, will see Harare City Council spearheading the programme in the local authorities’ sector. According to recent minutes of the Human Resources and General Purposes Committee, acting town clerk Mrs Josephine Ncube recommended that councillors grant authority for a pilot project on productivity to be undertaken by the city in the department of Harare Water.

“The acting town clerk (Mrs Ncube) took the committee through her report,” reads the minutes. She reported that following the establishment of the Institute of Productivity by Government, council’s productivity was set to be benchmarked in terms of inter-alia costs, prices, turnaround time for specific jobs and salary.

“A roll out programme to implement the same was set for all local authorities. The acting town clerk (Mrs Ncube) clarified that the project was reposed in the Ministry of Public Service. The City of Harare’s management had met with the sub-committee of the tripartite representation of the Productivity Board to develop implementation modalities.”

Mrs Ncube told councillors that it had been agreed that the city would spearhead implementation of the project in the local authorities sector and she assured them that there would be no costs to council even though the project was going to benefit the city.

The committee discussed the matter, asserting that productivity would increase if central Government provided necessary support to council. While agreeing with the sentiments, Mrs Ncube expressed hope that Government would provide the pending support and also settle its indebtedness to council in unpaid utility charges.

Following further discussion, council noted Government’s initiatives to introduce productivity benchmarking in local authorities. Council also noted that a roadmap for stakeholder engagement and implementation process would be developed. Harare City Council recently appointed officers to head its districts, as it decentralised its service delivery mandate, with each district expected to retain 25 percent of revenue collections.

The city officials say this will improve operations, with each of the districts overseeing services such as water and sewer, road maintenance and payment of bills by residents, as they will also run individual bank accounts.