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NewsDay

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Councillors seal Mahachi’s fate

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HARARE City councillors have endorsed the suspension of town clerk Tendai Mahachi after he was sent on forced leave by mayor Bernard Manyenyeni over several allegations including incompetence.

HARARE City councillors have endorsed the suspension of town clerk Tendai Mahachi after he was sent on forced leave by mayor Bernard Manyenyeni over several allegations including incompetence.

BY MOSES MATENGA

According to sources who attended the human resources committee meeting on Monday, councillors agreed to support Manyenyeni.

The mayor’s decision to suspend Mahachi had been received with mixed reactions with some city fathers accusing him of failure to consult.

Human resources committee chairman Wellington Chikombo refused to divulge details of the meeting, but confirmed Mahachi was still on leave.

“All I can tell you is that the town clerk is on leave and will remain on leave,” said Chikombo. Mahachi would not come back to work until December 31, when his contract expires and was likely not to be renewed.

Manyenyeni said this would allow council to look at several matters that needed attention in his absence and also deal with the succession issue at Town House.

However, while on “forced leave” on July 8, Mahachi allegedly sneaked into Town House and signed the agenda for a committee meeting.

But the agenda was rejected by councillors.

“He signed the agenda, but we could not take it, we just rejected it,” said a source.

Investigations by NewsDay have revealed that Mahachi had failed to turn around Harare and was blamed for poor performance, poor service delivery and ruining of council businesses and properties.

He is accused of decimating existing structures at Town House when he came in as a strategist and for his attempts to bring in business units that only ushered in a “top-heavy directorship” that cost council millions of dollars.

Mahachi was also accused of bringing in joint ventures that prejudiced council.

“When he realised that the turnaround programme was a flop, he immediately changed course and brought about joint venture agreements,” said a source.

“The joint venture with Easipark (for car parking) was a dismal failure which was superintended by him.”

The source questioned the logic of sharing of 60:40 profit with a partner who only brought “a couple of computers”.

“For the duration of the joint venture, the city never received a dividend,” the source said.

“Instead it has lost thousands of dollars on lawsuits arising from this joint venture.”

The sources said the irony of the venture was that Harare’s investments by way of the two parkades amounting to over $20 million had not brought any relief to residents.

Another blunder blamed on Mahachi was the contract to dualise Airport Road, which was hurriedly concluded after a land swap was suggested as the cost for the project.

“There has not been any independent verification of the value of the land exchanged for the dualisation and whether this land has been transferred,” another source said.

“Given the recent reports that the original contractor will not be completing the dualisation, it is imperative to ascertain whether the land originally transferred has been transferred back to the city.”

Mahachi is also said to have blundered when he allowed the $20 million payment as arbitral awards to employees who disappeared from work in 2006, 2007 and 2009 only to resurface after dollarisation and claim salaries for years they were not at work.

“This money could have gone a long way towards the provision of services.

“No action was taken against this costly blunder, confirming the lack of managerial astuteness of the town clerk and those to whom he reports.”

Mahachi was also accused of being aloof and failing to advocate for receipt of a large portion of Zimbabwe National Road Authority funds to fund servicing of city roads which are now in a deplorable state.

“The traffic woes of Harare have been made worse by a clueless administrator who cannot advise council and government to tame the traffic jungle in Harare,” the source said.

“You can only do this by introduction of a mass transport system and not the commuter transport model in place.”

The $144 million Chinese loan for the refurbishment of Morton Jaffray Waterworks was also mentioned as another area the town clerk has been found wanting when he authorised the purchase of luxury vehicles using part of the loan.

“To confirm his myopic nature, he went ahead and authorised the purchase of luxury vehicles for a contract with a tenure of 18 months and with only 10 months left before completion,” the source said.

“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.”

Mahachi was also accused of failure to arrest the proliferation of illegal activities in the city centre and mushrooming of illegal housing schemes in Harare.

Mahachi was not available for comment yesterday.