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Commission throws out council's turnaround document
Michael Padera, The Herald (Zimbabwe)
September 12, 2005

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=46838&pubdate=2005-09-12

COMMISSIONERS running the City of Harare have thrown out the municipality’s strategic turnaround project document drafted by strategist Mr Chester Mhende on the basis that it is economically unsustainable and insensitive to the plight of the workers.

Instead, the commission has resolved to adopt an earlier strategic turnaround document prepared by former city strategist and now Air Zimbabwe chief executive officer Dr Tendai Mahachi.

The chairperson of the commission running the city’s affairs, Councillor Sekesayi Makwavarara, yesterday confirmed that the commission had rejected the Mhende document in its entirety and instead adopted the Mahachi document, but refused to shed more light.

"Yes, we met and decided against the Chester Mhende document, but adopted the one made by Mahachi,’’ she said.

Mr Mhende has been refusing to talk to the Press on the development.

The rejected document had plunged the City of Harare into potential administrative chaos as it sought to create 25 strategic business units (SBUs) for the cash-strapped council, with each of the units having its board of directors and management executives.

One of the radical prescriptions in the document was that all the workers be dismissed and asked to reapply for their jobs on entirely new contracts and conditions of work, a move which the council employees described as being "insensitive, abusive and highly ambitious".

The latest development comes in the wake of the commission having approved the Mahachi document in March and subsequently held a follow-up meeting on its implementation in Kadoma in May.

On Tuesday, the commissioners held a caucus meeting at Town House with Mr Mhende where it was agreed that his document be shelved.

The commissioners had earlier met the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Cde Ignatius Chombo, to register their displeasure with the manner Mr Mhende was carrying out the turnaround project.

A meeting with stakeholders that was scheduled for the previous day, Monday, was subsequently called off.

According to a commissioner, who declined to be named, the commission also observed that Mr Mhende was acting within the confines of a contract he had signed after reaching an agreement with some senior council officials, unbeknown to and without the mandate of the commission, hence the need to draw up new terms of reference for Mr Mhende.

The drafting of terms of reference follow revelations that the commission had rejected Mr Mhende’s ideas well before he was hired.

"Mr Mhende was running around with a preconceived document. That document was rejected by the executive committee before he (Mhende) was appointed. His contract also stated that he should create strategic business units," said the source.

The source added that the commission had hired Mr Mhende "to implement the Mahachi document and not to create a new one".

Meanwhile, council on Monday paid over $28 million for food that was not eaten because of the cancellation of the stakeholders’ meeting that was scheduled at a local city hotel.

The food was brought to Town House on Tuesday, but workers reportedly refused to eat it saying it had gone stale having been kept overnight.

Booking fees were also reportedly forfeited.

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