Zimbabwean journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, criticised the Harare City Council for attending a workshop in Nyanga, Manicaland, while a cholera crisis is happening in Harare.
The workshop cost US$24,000, and Chin’ono expressed his frustration with the councillors for not prioritising the emergency. He questioned why the Mayor and Deputy Mayor would be away during a cholera crisis. He said:
I am totally upset with City of Harare councillors, there is a cholera state of emergency in Harare and yet their councillors have gone to a workshop in Nyanga. What is wrong with these people? Can you imagine that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be away in the middle of a cholera emergency. The rate payers are paying US$24,000 for the 13 people plus more for the 10 chairpersons, 23 people in total! Whoever cursed this country must be dead, if they were alive they would feel sorry for us and remove their curse! They simply don’t care about the people!
According to the Town Clerk’s report, the workshop was organised by the Zimbabwe Institute of Strategic Thinking (ZIST), an organisation which brings strategic solutions using homegrown solutions. Read the report in part:
The objectives are to find new financial and business partners, expand network to top-level business contracts, discover and learn best practices from leading and fast-growing companies, and be an expert in efficiency towards defined goals and standards. “The theme of the workshop is Refining Corporate Excellence and Efficiency towards delivering a Middle Income Economy —Vision 2030. “It will also review the tax obligation. Organization will gain strategic incites, share experiences and identify new opportunities”.
The topics to be covered will be as follows, leveraging on indigenous capital base to drive social and economic transformation and possible pathways for a pragmatic approach by 2030. The role of monetary policy and dynamics towards refined optional currency in Zimbabwe and Refining Zimbabwe’s economic recovery plan. The travelling dates are as follows 26 and 30 November 2023.
Some people believe that the workshop was necessary, and the amount spent would not have solved the cholera issue anyway. They argue that strategic workshops provide a focused environment for generating innovative ideas and long-term plans, adaptation to changing circumstances, resource allocation, policy development, and performance evaluation in municipalities. They argue that such meetings are crucial for effective governance in the face of ongoing challenges.
They also pointed out that the workshop was not organised by the city of Harare but was an annual event they were attending. They suggest that the Human Resources Department cannot halt its operations due to the cholera outbreak and speculate that the workshop may have been about motivation and team building.