Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume has suspended town clerk Hosiah Chisango over multiple allegations, including awarding a tender to a blacklisted company and extending his term of office indefinitely without council approval.
Chisango has been suspended with pay and benefits but is prohibited from reporting for duty or acting on behalf of the City of Harare during this period.
Recently, he was granted bail by the High Court after spending nearly two months in remand prison on charges of tender fraud.
In his suspension letter dated September 30, Mafume cited several instances of misconduct by Chisango in his role as the council’s accounting officer. Wrote Mafume:
This letter serves to inform you that on the grounds stated below you are hereby suspended from all your duties as the Town Clerk with effect from the 30th of September 2024 in terms of Section 6 (1) of Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006 as read with Section 139(3)(a) of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15).
Grounds for suspension (a) The employer has a good cause to believe that you have committed a serious misconduct in that you contravened Section 4(a) of the National Code i.e. S.I. 15 of 2006 otherwise known as ‘Any act or conduct or omission inconsistent with the fulfilment of the express or implied conditions of his or her contract.
You did so in one or more of the following ways; you misconducted yourself in the procurement and award of a tender for street lights to Jukula Enterprises in that you awarded the contract to a blacklisted company which had a record of breaching its tender obligations.
Or that you awarded a tender to a company owned by proprietors of blacklisted companies thereby exposing Council to potential financial losses and which company in this case had not won the tender.
In doing so, you have failed one of your primary functions as the accounting officer which is to protect the council’s interest
Mafume also accused Chisango of failing to secure effective Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and system support for the management of the Council’s billing and accounting systems for nearly five years.
He also claimed that the town clerk renewed the contracts of other senior employees without proper authorisation. Wrote the mayor:
At the expiry of your fixed term contract around July 2023, you proceeded to give yourself a contract without limit of time without the knowledge and authority of council and without the approval of the Local Government Board in terms of Section 132(1) of the Urban Councils Act.
In violation of the circular issued on the 26th of June 2014 paragraph 2.2 by the Ministry of Local Government and approved by Cabinet.
Chisango’s contract at the Harare City Council expired in 2023 after completing his initial four-year term.
According to Local Government and Public Works Ministry circular number 86 of 2018, heads of local authorities are mandated to serve for four years.
Meanwhile, according to ZiFM Stereo, on October 1, Mafume was taken aback to find Chisango present at the full council meeting at Town House.
In a surprising turn of events, journalists were quickly removed from the meeting, preventing them from witnessing the unfolding drama between Mafume and Chisango.
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