Harare, 9 September 2015- THE departure of Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi from the City of Harare
was long overdue. He had become excess baggage. His tenure has been one of the worst by a town
clerk of the capital city of Zimbabwe. This analysis will explore the strengths and weaknesses of the
former town clerk’s tenure, outline some of the biggest blunders that cost the City of Harare huge
amounts of money, and proffer recommendations of how the City of Harare can deal with this
matter.
As soon as he was contracted by the City of Harare as a turnaround strategist, Dr Mahachi disbanded
the six departments of the City of Harare into what he called strategic business units (SBUs), claiming
that they would enhance the performance of the council. This resulted in the once vibrant Works
Department being split to create Harare Water, Urban Planning Services, Amenities and Engineering,
headed by substantive directors, earning above US$15 000 each. The Housing and Community
Services Department was left as it was while the City Health had two directors imposed on residents,
Dr Prosper Chonzi and Dr Stanley Mungofa, both in same grade 2, receiving similar benefits from the
Council.
The result of the creation of the SBUs was the decimation of the traditional City of Harare structures,
which had been efficient and effective up to the time they were dismantled. A top heavy
directorship of the council emerged, further straining the capacity of the council to deliver essential
services to the residents. The top departmental management brought with it perquisites for their
positions. This turnaround programme left behind total destruction to the COH systems, processes
and procedures. Additional bank accounts were opened to transact business from the created
business units, plunging the morale of the City employees to its lowest level since the establishment
of the council.
When Dr Mahachi realised that his turnaround strategy had dismally failed to turn around the
fortunes of the City of Harare, he immediately changed course and brought about Joint Venture
Agreements, among them the EasiPark deal, which he dismally failed to superintend.
The question that needs to be answered is how an institution that brought with it a few computers
could successfully enter into a joint venture agreement with the Capital City and even agree to a 60:
40 percentage ration sharing of profits. That was an unjustified agreement. This could imply that
someone within the structure, and possibly, Mahachi, personally benefited from this joint venture
agreement, heavily skewed in favour of the EasiHoldings of South Africa.
According to City of Harare officials, privy to the agreement, the City has not received any
meaningful dividends from the investment. Instead, the council has lost thousands of dollars in
lawsuits arising from this joint venture. The irony of this venture is that the COH's investments by
way of the two parkades amounting to over $20 million has not brought any relief to the residents of
Harare by assisting in the financing of service delivery.
A contract to dualise the Airport Road was hurriedly concluded where the cost of the dualisation was
to be paid through a land swap. There has not been any independent verification of the value of the
land exchanged for the dualization and whether this land has been transferred.
Given recent reports that the original contractor will not be completing the dualisation project, it is
imperative to ascertain whether the land originally transferred has been transferred back to the City.
Below we outline some of the key blunders Dr Mahachi made as Town Clerk;
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Over $20 million has been paid as arbitral awards to employees who disappeared from the
workplace from 2006, 2007 and 2008 only to resurface after dollarisation in 2009 and claim
salaries for years that they did not report for work. This money could have gone a long way
towards the provision of services. No action was taken against this costly blunder,
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confirming the lack of 'managerial astute' of the Town Clerk and those to whom he reports
to.
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Two directors for City Health Department have been receiving salaries and huge allowances
from residents’ money. This is the clearest evidence of the capacity or lack of it to administer
an Institution the size of the City.
The state of roads in and around the City has deteriorated in last ten years. The hyperinflation before dollarisation has taken its toll on the state of roads. The taking over of
vehicle license income by the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA) worsened the
already poor state of roads. The Town Clerk should have strongly advocated the receipt of
large proportion of vehicle license receipts from Harare motorists for the repair of their
roads. Instead very little was done towards this advocacy. Now we hear income from license
receipts will be used to finish the Air Port road instead of repairing the very poor roads used
by the Harare motorists who pay vehicle license fees. The Town Clerk has watched helplessly
while Harare turning into a village.
The traffic woes of Harare have been made worse by a clueless administrator who cannot
advise Council and the Government to tame the traffic jungle in Harare. You can only do this
by the introduction of a Mass Transport System and not the Commuter transport as is the
current system. You will need a visionary Administrator to be able to see through this maze.
Corporate governance is the buzz word and non observance of the practice can only be done
by myopic individuals intending to cover-up corrupt, unbecoming work practice and
fraudulent track records. Withholding the level of salaries and benefits to an elected Council
(who are equivalent of a Board of Directors in the private sector) is insubordination of the
highest order. Such behaviour warrants the sternest of disciplinary action by those in
authority. The perpetrator of this behaviour has however been KNIGHTED!
The $144million contract for the upgrade of water supply and sewer disposal is said to be
overpriced going by recent media reports. The Town Clerk was the architect in the
negotiations leading to the conclusion of the contract. He is said to have gone to China more
than 10 times during the tenure of the negotiations. As with previous contracts he has
concluded, some handholding was necessary during the conclusion of this contract given the
alleged overpricing. To confirm his myopic nature, he went ahead and authorized the
purchase of luxury vehicles for a contract with tenure of 18 months and with only 10 months
left before completion. What will become of the luxury vehicles when the contract comes to
an end? Residents will be burdened with a loan repayment which will not increase water
supply which is the purpose of the loan in the first place. Due diligence should be exercised
in similar projects arising from ZIMASSET to ensure that public resources are used in the
most effective and efficient manner.
Towards the 2013 elections during the tenure of a Caretaker Council, Tendai Mahachi
allowed the recruitment of the following: A Head of Department to head the Public Safety
Unit- Chinengundu, a former policeman, four personnel were recruited in the Public
Relations Division and placed into grades 6 – 7. This was done at a time when the payment
of salaries was lagging behind. At this moment anyone with the capacity to appreciate the
financial status of the City would have been restrained in going ahead with the recruitment.
Yet Dr Mahachi saw nothing amiss and recommended the recruitment of three people to
the PR Division, namely Michael Chideme, Dorothy Mavolwane, Hope Chizuzu and against all
odds.
The Town Clerk has failed to arrest the proliferation of illegal activities around the city and at
one stage it had to take the Minister to order the destruction of such operations. Cooperatives were grabbing open pieces of land around the City while he stood 'akimbo'. The
city centre was invaded by vendors while he watched admiringly.
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Contrary to popular perceptions the City's head of departments do not earn upwards of $30
000 per month. When the stories were coming up, he should have refuted them and
provided documentary evidence of the correct salary levels. Residents are discouraged to
pay
their
rates
given
the
salary
levels
reported
in
the
media.
He has recommended the retrenchments of Departmental Heads and other senior staff and
offered them a retrenchment package of among other payouts, 3months salary for every
year serviced. This is despite the fact that some of those retrenched had only served for 2 or
3 years.
Official records show that Dr Mahachi has two birth records, 15 November 1950 on his
passport Number CN 851406 which expires on 11 June 2022, and the other one 15
November 1956 with the City’s administration employee birthday records. This alone speaks
volumes about the calibre of the person we are talking about, who has led the Capital City
for eight years. It is interesting to note that his bosses think it is normal and no criminal
charges have been laid against him for possible affidavits he may have authored giving false
dates of birth. It is on record that he authored affidavits which were submitted to the
Zimbabwe Republic Police and to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission with 'doctored'
dates of birth, when some matters relating to the City of Harare were being investigated.
Elsewhere, the man would be charged with perjury for falsifying information on an Affidavit.
With the political clout he commands the powers that be look away and walk away!
Recently he is alleged to have mortgaged Council assets that include the two parkades
(Samora Machel & Julius Nyerere) and the Mayoral House in order to pay salary arrears. To
the Councillors, this would appear as if he is addressing outstanding backlog in salary arrears
but what he is actually doing is ASSET STRIPPING. By the time Council sees his backside a
sizeable amount of assets would have been sold off to finance salary arrears.
He has failed to address the Rufaro Marketing (Pvt) Ltd issue where the former Council beer
outlets are being let out and rentals not being collected or have been left to be vandalised.
For all the above the man has been knighted and given accolades by the powers that be while the
state of service delivery continues to deteriorate. To certain individuals, he is doing a sterling job and
should continue despite these real and not perceived blunders and officially misleading the general
populace on his actual age. If he had worked for any other organization which subscribes proper
cooperate governance he would have been 'shown the door' a long time ago.
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