Bulawayo starts looking for new Town Clerk

Source: The Chronicle – Breaking news

Nqobile Bhebhe, nqobile.bhebhe@chronicle.co.zw

THE Bulawayo City Council has set in motion a recruitment process for a new town clerk to take over from Mr Christopher Dube who is due to retire next year in September.

The local authority has said it is aiming for a “seamless succession planning” process, adding  that the recruitment of senior council staff was a long process hence the need to start the process timeously due to the strategic nature of the top leadership position in the organisation.

According to the council’s confidential report for the General Purposes Committee, dated 26 October, Mr Dube is due to retire on 30 September 2024.

By that time, he would have served two four-year terms in terms of the enabling statute. His initial contract expired in September of 2020.

The report indicates that Mr Dube agrees with an early start to identify his successor.

“The human capital director (Mr Makhosi Tshalebwa) reported (19th October 2023) that Town Clerk (Mr C Dube) was due to retire on the 30th September 2024 after serving for two (2) four-year terms in terms of the enabling statute,” reads the report.

“The recruitment of senior council staff is a long process and as such it was advisable to  kick start the process timeously due to the strategic nature of the top-most leadership position in the organisation.

“The incumbent was amenable to the idea of commencing the process in good time,” reads part of the report.

The council has since recommended that, in recognition of the impending retirement of the town clerk in September 2024, authority be granted to start the recruitment process to fill the aforesaid position as soon as possible, to facilitate seamless succession planning.

Mr Dube, a former town clerk at the Victoria Falls town council, was appointed Bulawayo Town Clerk in 2016, replacing Mr Middleton Nyoni, who died in 2015.

In 2021, the Local Government Board endorsed the council’s decision to renew Mr Dube’s contract by a further four years.

That was after the council had in 2020 resolved to extend Mr Dube’s contract till September 2024.

The general purposes committee had voted six to one in favour of extending Mr Dube’s contract. However, the bid to renew Mr Dube’s contract was engulfed in controversy with the then opposition MDC-Alliance attempting to block its councillors from endorsing the move.

This saw some councillors including the then Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni being barred from the party’s provincial offices and ordered to reverse the decision if they were to be allowed back into the offices.