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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
Gweru’s new town clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza has said she inherited a system that was disintegrating and corrupt which could have resulted in council losing much revenue.

In a wide ranging interview in her office yesterday, Ms Gwatipedza said there was a need for a complete overhaul of the recruitment, billing and service delivery system so that all council operations are coordinated from her office for transparency and accountability purposes.

Ms Gwatipedza who started work on December 5, took over from Mr Daniel Matawu who was fired after being found guilty of 15 counts of gross incompetence and negligence by the commission running the affairs of Gweru.

She said Gweru was in the red and had liabilities amounting to about $40 million.

The new town clerk, who came from Redcliff Municipality where she held a similar position for the past six years after having served at that local authority for 22 years, said she was coming to restore order and make Gweru successful.

“Let me say that we are working on making sure that we have a smooth, transparent system.  To say I am inheriting a rotten system is too strong a word but the system I’m inheriting needs to be changed as a matter of urgency.  “People would be appointed at the human resources with the town clerk in the dark. There was random appointment and promotion of workers without proper procedure being followed.

“Some departments were running their affairs without the town clerk’s involvement but now I am saying ‘I am there and there should be one centre of power for professionalism and accountability,” said Ms Gwatipedza.

She said while records indicated that there are about 36 000 properties in Gweru, the number on the ground was almost double. The town clerk said about half of the properties in the city were not captured on council’s database.

She said the municipality was losing a lot of potential revenue in water and other services rendered to owners of such properties who are not billed.
Ms Gwatipedza said properties that were not accounted for were straining council for water and other services.

“There was an audit done which indicated that there are unaccounted properties in the council data base, which were unfortunately relying on council for services thereby putting a strain on council services such as the provision of water.

“For example, we are pumping 45 mega litres of water a day which are not enough for the city and at the end of the day some suburbs are going without water because of such properties which are not on our database,” she said.

Ms Gwatipedza said in the one month she has been in office, she has noticed that records from cash inflows to staff management were done manually, a situation she said was open to abuse.

“They are still doing it manually in capturing data and that data can be manipulated.  We have since received a directive from the ministry that we computerise our system to curb corruption,” she said.

Council was in the red, she said with residents and companies, some of which have since shut down, owing council about $130 million. —@pchitumba1