HARARE mayor Bernard Manyenyeni yesterday accused suspended town clerk Tendai Mahachi of doctoring his date of birth to escape mandatory retirement.
BY MOSES MATENGA
Manyenyeni, who was justifying why he sent Mahachi on forced leave last week, said he would present his case to newly-appointed Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
He told journalists that Mahachi withheld his employment file at Town House and kept it at home.
“Our attempts to get Dr Mahachi’s employment file has not yielded much,” Manyenyeni said.
“The file could not be located in three of the most likely areas: the mayor’s office, the human capital director’s office or the chamber secretary’s office. The town clerk then indicated that he had his own personal employment file at home.”
The mayor said Mahachi last week told him he had sent the file to someone at the Local Government Board (LGB), but could not identify the person.
“He surprised the meeting of the deputy mayor, HR (human resources) committee chairman (Wellington Chikombo) and myself last Monday that he does not know the person who he gave his file to,” Manyenyeni said. “He had the arrogance to pack his papers simply saying ‘I am going’ before going out of the meeting.”
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He said Mahachi could have been a candidate for retirement exercise from last year, but lied about his age.
“Upon my insistence on the age matter, a solution presented itself over four months ago when the town clerk offered himself for exit proposing December 31, 2015 as his retirement from service of the city,” the mayor added.
Manyenyeni said it was not the first time that Mahachi had presented shocking submissions, citing a case in 2013 when he presented his Zimdollar payslip to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government as proof of his salary.
This was after reports that Mahachi was getting more than US$37 000 a month while his team of 18 managers was gobbling more than US$500 000 a month.
The mayor gave Mahachi targets to meet as conditions of his return to work and these included the 2015 council budget approval and executive salary review, internally-driven succession plan with or without guidance from the LGB, publication of audited financial accounts of council for 2009 to 2011 and draft unaudited accounts for 2012 to 2014.
