{"id":14802,"date":"2019-10-16T19:08:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T17:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=14802"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:12:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T17:12:42","slug":"gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension","title":{"rendered":"Gweru mayor defends \u2018incompetent\u2019 Town Clerk suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gweru\">Gweru<\/a> Mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/news.pindula.co.zw\/tag\/josiah-makombe\/\">Josiah Makombe<\/a> has defended council\u2019s decision to suspend Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza (pictured below), adding that the move was not politically motivated, but was meant to rid the Midlands city of incompetence.<\/p>\n<p>He was speaking at a press briefing in Gweru on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Makombe on Monday served Gwatipedza with her suspension letter.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor returned on Tuesday to defend the decision.<\/p>\n<p>He said service delivery in the city was not satisfactory and the Town Clerk who is supposed to be steering the ship seemed clueless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCouncil today (Tuesday) suspended the Town Clerk of the City of Gweru, Madam Gwatipedza. We are coming from a special council meeting to deliberate on the suspension letter that I gave her yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCouncillors unanimously adopted the suspension pending all the processes that needs to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Makombe tried to downplay the rift between management and councillors.<\/p>\n<p>He said this was \u201cjust a suspension\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201c\u2026In a suspension, someone will be called to answer the allegations. Thereafter, we will see where it takes us as a council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the allegations which led to the suspension was \u201cgross incompetence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are worried with the service delivery that we are giving to our people. It is poor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGwatipedza, being the accounting officer, she had to make sure that she brings service to the level residents expect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Makombe outlined reasons for the suspension of Gwatipedza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmongst some of the reasons which led to Madam Gwatipedza\u2019s suspension are gross incompetence on her part, failure to supervise and monitor the departments such that at the end of the day, compromise service delivery in the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He was adamant the decision to suspend the city\u2019s number one administrator by the MDC dominated council was not political.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me make it clear that this is not a political decision. This has nothing to do with politics. This is purely an issue of employment where one is supposed to be accountable and provide the direction of the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are declared politicians as councillors but when it comes to employment, we employ our personnel based on merit as they are not politicians. Gwatipedza was not a politician and she is not a politician.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was here employed on merit. As council, we were not happy with the way things were being done in the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Gwatipedza joined Gweru City council from Redcliff in 2016, replacing Daniel Matewu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gweru Mayor Josiah Makombe has defended council\u2019s decision to suspend Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza (pictured below), adding that the move was not politically motivated, but was meant to rid the Midlands city of incompetence. He was speaking at a press briefing in Gweru on Tuesday. Makombe on Monday served Gwatipedza with her suspension letter. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[972,168,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-14802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-councillors","10":"tag-gweru","11":"tag-mdc"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gweru mayor defends \u2018incompetent\u2019 Town Clerk suspension - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gweru Mayor Josiah Makombe has defended council\u2019s decision to suspend Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza adding that the move\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gweru mayor defends \u2018incompetent\u2019 Town Clerk suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gweru Mayor Josiah Makombe has defended council\u2019s decision to suspend Town Clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza adding that the move\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-16T17:08:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-16T17:12:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/2019\/08\/Local-Governance-Minister-July-Moyo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gweru-mayor-defends-incompetent-town-clerk-suspension\",\"name\":\"Gweru mayor defends \u2018incompetent\u2019 Town Clerk suspension - 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