guest column:Emmanuel Zvada

HR in the age of disruptions needs to play the role of agile leaders with a digital and business mindset, helping their organisations stay ahead of the technological curve. Smart technologies are not just changing our homes; they are edging their way disrupting the workplaces.

I thank IPMZ (Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe) for pioneering Digital HR Transformation last week, it was really long overdue in the Zimbabwean HR fraternity as it has the potential to improve productivity, efficiency and accuracy across organisations both private and public.

What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technology used to do a task that requires some level of intelligence to accomplish. In other words, they are tools trained to do what a human can do. AI is different from ordinary software’s because it has high-speed computation, a huge amount of quality data and advanced algorithms. AI technologies offer significant opportunities to improve HR functions, such as self-service transactions, recruiting and talent acquisition, payroll, reporting, access policies and procedures. Human resources executives have faith that merging AI into HR administration functions will benefit and improve the overall employee experience.

Artificial intelligence and HRM

AI is reinventing human resources in a way not seen before by automating the repetitive task of hiring, onboarding, learning, and development, allowing HR teams to focus more on creative and strategic work. AI is being used in HR to automate repetitive, low-value tasks thus increasing the focus on more strategic work. Many fear that the rise of AI will lead to machines and robots replacing human workers and view this progression in technology as a threat rather than a tool to better ourselves. Let me clear all the fears and resistance of AI by enlightening all HR practitioners that you are not been replaced but HR processes, system and practices are just being reinvented.

Why artificial intelligence
Adopting a workplace artificial intelligence leads to more automatic processing for tasks that a company works through each day. It is crucial to note that the beauty of AI in the workplace is that the same amount of work that can be done in a day or two days by employees with the aid of AI it can be done in hours. This means productivity and efficiency is enhanced. Using AI in the workplace is also easier than many thinks. Artificial intelligence in the workplace allows a company and its employees to reach maximum efficiency levels, leaving more time for projects and networking.

Eliminate repetitive, manual processes with automation
AI automates processes eliminating repetitive, manual processes replacing them with automation. Think about how much time is wasted on repetitive processes that could be performed via automation. By automating many of the physical and redundant processes performed by your workforce, you can allocate more time, resources, and brainpower to larger endeavour’s like sales strategy and customer satisfaction.

Save time especially use of chatbots
A chatbot is a service, powered by pre-programmed rules and sometimes, that you interact through a chat interface. Chatbots have actually been around for years, but they have had a recent renaissance with the rise of artificial intelligence. These easy-to-use tools are incredibly useful in the workplace since they allow for instant communication, ergo faster decision-making.

AI chatbots become smarter over time and learn better answers to frequently asked questions, freeing up time for management to focus on more strategic tasks. These virtual robots are effective and bridge the communication gap between employees and management and make internal information easily accessible.

Artificial intelligence improves employee’s productivity.

The main objective of the organisation is to earn maximum profit by utilising minimum manpower. Through the technical improvements and automation software, multiple tasks in the office are achieved effortlessly and the work of the employees become much simpler. The advancement of technology works as an important tool but at the same time, increases complexity at the workplace. Not only does AI increase productivity, it also improves overall quality. With any job, human-error is always a factor, whereas AI software is less likely to malfunction. It also enables deeper personalisation by understanding what customers want over time, resulting in better quality products and services.

Reducing human bias in decision making
Humans are normally biased in whatever choices or decision they making. Even when striving for inclusiveness, HR professionals may subconsciously lean toward a particular candidate, for example in recruitment. Now, with artificial intelligence, algorithms can be designed to help employers identify and remove these biases. That potentially translates to better hiring communication and attracting a more diverse group of candidates. Those same algorithms can also find candidates who may have been screened out due to human bias.

Artificial intelligent makes HR more human
Embracing of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in human capital management is the only way that HR practitioners can become more human at workplaces. The automation of tasks through AI technology allows for the freeing of HR professionals to focus on uniquely human abilities such as critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. While they are involved with the more human tasks, technology, at the moment, can handle the more ordinary tasks.

Besides being adaptable, flexible and agile to the ongoing changes, HR has to prepare for the innovations that are yet to occur and the development that might define the future of work. This is where a strong knowledge of current trends and the potential they come with will come in handy.

The HR department is probably the most promising field to put AI to use as they are the first line in dealing with the “human” component of their business. AI could serve as a great ally to them at each stage, right from sourcing talent, shortlisting applicants and performance assessment, making it a key tool in HR management. The journey for HR to pace up with the age of disruption starts from knowing the employees, the business, the environment the business operates in, applying analytics and data science, and then framing relevant strategies which will be then executed using new age technologies as per the requirement of business. Thus, in the age of disruptions, the first thing HR needs to disrupt is themselves.

If organisations wish to remain competitive in today’s global economy, they need to look at ways to incorporate conversational AI for HR transactions in their decision-making processes.

Organisations should rely on AI to perform administrative duties so that HR departments may become more efficient, by so doing HR professionals will be able to focus more on strategic planning at an organisational level.

guest column:Everson Mushava

Last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa penned an opinion reflecting on his two-year rule since taking over from his long-time ally and mentor turned foe, the late former President Robert Mugabe in a coup in November 2017.

For many people not living the realities of hyperinflation, a collapsed health sector and deepening human rights violations that have characterised the past two years, the opinion piece showcased a man on an unrelenting mission to change Zimbabwe for the better.

Key was Mnangagwa’s claim that his rule marked a complete break from Mugabe’s ruinous and autocratic leadership. He said under the so-called new dispensation, the people of Zimbabwe have been given their voices.

Sweet, only if it were true. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, 21 people have been arrested for insulting or undermining the authority of the President during Mnangagwa’s two-year rule.

Since January last year, about 22 people have been arrested on subversion laws, apart from the over 20 abducted during the same period that was marked by the first ever internet shutdown in Zimbabwe, making Mnangagwa and Mugabe birds of the same feather.

At least 23 people died after Mnangagwa deployed the military to deal with dissent, six of them dying in August in 2018 in post-election protests crackdown, and 17 more during protests over fuel price hikes in January last year.

Mnangagwa’s failure disappointed many of his faithfuls who never anticipated his failure on the economic and political fronts. Even those who had never budgeted for his failure were shocked by the speed with which he proved them wrong.

Democracy is measured by rule of law, not rule by law. Based on his promise, Mnangagwa’s task was to align over 400 pieces of laws to the 2013 Constitution. But progress on that front has been moving at a snail’s pace, with the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act still on the Zimbabwe statutes. The Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (Mopa) signed by Mnangagwa last year is even more draconian than the colonial Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma). Mnangagwa’s façade of reformist is breaking like pieces of Chinaware, exposing a President who is selfish, rapacious and keen to consolidate power at all cost.

Reform — Mnangagwa’s thorn-littered path
“I commit to you that we will continue to reform with an eye on the long term; for we must not reform only for ourselves, but for our children and our children’s children,” Mnangagwa said last month. Contrasting Mnangagwa’s promises against action proves the Zanu PF leader is full of rhetoric, but pathetically short on action.

An array of reasons could be militating against his resolve towards reform, although he could be willing to do so.

Important to note is the way Mnangagwa ascended to power which often presents the biggest precursor to his failure to reform.

Mnangagwa took over power through a coup and existing literature suggests most governments consummated from coups are themselves a threat to democracy. Coup in a dictatorial regime is likely to convey a democratic changeover, particularly in those States that are least expected to democratise the conventional way. But the situation on the ground shows that coups only oust dictators to impose new ones, increasing human rights violations and instability.

Studies suggest that coups cannot bring about a complete democratic transformation, but rather, marginal guarantees of certain rights temporarily to be suppressed when it becomes necessary for the new incumbent to maintain power when subsequently challenged. Such has been the case with Zimbabwe. The vast number of democratic failures in Africa is due to coups, and Zimbabwe has joined the bandwagon. The coup in Zimbabwe was more about self-preservation, than it was about the people. The coup changed the leaders and not the political game plan as University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Eldred Masunungure has observed.

Mnangagwa was thrust in to become a civilian face of the coup and has struggled to balance political stakes in Zimbabwe’s triangular power matrix pitting the military, die-hard party supporters and the people who marched to support his take over from Mugabe.

He can’t reform without stepping on the toes of his biggest stakeholders, particularly the military. In fact, Mnangagwa is a step child, if he washes, he is wasting soap and water, and if he doesn’t wash, he is labelled dirty. He stands at the centre of a political precipice. He knows what needs to be done, as exhibited by his rhetoric, but is doing the opposite because of his compromised position.

The international community, moderates in his Zanu PF party and the people who marched in solidarity with him want reforms; the army and the hardliners in the party are anti-reform, but power consolidation. The military feel more entitled because they engineered Mnangagwa’s rise, and for Zanu PF to step on their toes in the name of reform would be suicidal. There will be grave consequences. Some people might want to argue that Mnangagwa is now his own man after last year’s elections. The way he rose to power will never make him independent from the military. It will remain a thorn in his flesh. Furthermore, Mnangagwa’s administration still has relics of the old regime that are not susceptible to change. Most of the changes by the Zanu PF leader are towards consolidation of power, not democratic transition for fear of reforming himself out of power.

On the other hand, Mnangagwa doesn’t seem to be enjoying a lot of support from his party and the bureaucracy, making reforms difficult. After the January 2019 bloody protests, his politics has shifted from the reform agenda to power consolidation “at all cost.”

Another factor working against reform is Mnangagwa’s type of governance lacks an ideological underpinning. Unlike Mugabe’s days when the world was aware that he stood for black consciousness and empowerment, that has not been the case with Mnangagwa.

It is easy to hazard that party members who support him support the person, not ideology, because none exits. His lack of clear ideological path has even put his Zanu PF supporters into a quagmire. They don’t know what to defend.

The lack of a clear ideological inclination seems to have brought in more confusion in Zanu PF than ever before, unless it is a form of strategic incoherence. Summing up Mnangagwa’s dilemma, foe and ex-Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo last week tweeted: “The ideology of varakashi is Mnangagwa, and their policies are Mnangagwa, whose only objective is that 2030 anenge achipo. The varakashi phenomenon is just a whole lot of bull expletive.”

Ideological deficiency has also put Mnangagwa at an international relations crossroad. When he got into power, he was keen to engage everyone, including the west, a move that seemed to have ruffled the Chinese that had stood with Zimbabwe or decades, vetoing several United Nations resolutions that could have brought grievous consequences on Zimbabwe.

After efforts to be readmitted into the Commonwealth as well as the removal of sanctions hit a snag, Mnangagwa, forced into a default mode, seem to be heading back to the East, with Russia becoming one of his biggest allies than China. This too seem to be unsettling China.

The statement released by Chinese embassy in Harare last year over Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2020 budget querying figures was nothing short of a manifestation of the Asian economic giant’s frustration with Mnangagwa’s government.

Could it be Mnangagwa is no longer being trusted by anyone? This leaves him constrained on the reforms to make, in fact, on whom to please. Zimbabwe is back to its pariah status and no rescue package is coming her way.

With the country burning economically, with no solution to the economic challenges; Mnangagwa’s government has turned into a police or military state to keep Zanu PF in power, forgetting the promised reforms.

It is clear to conclude that Mnangagwa doesn’t seem to be enjoying his leadership.

He can’t take any further step without hurting himself.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

SUSPENDED Gokwe town secretary Melania Mandeya (pictured), who was arrested last week on allegations of corruption and violation of procurement procedures, was yesterday denied bail by Gokwe resident magistrate.

Mandeya appeared before magistrate Musaiona Shotgame, who remanded her in custody to February 14 pending finalisation of investigations.

Allegations are that on November 4, 2015, Mandeya in her capacity as the Gokwe town secretary and knowing that the council was in need of a tailor to sew curtains, invited and awarded her relative, Zvichapera Zunzanyika, who lived with her, the tender without following proper procedures.

It is alleged the procedures included flighting an advertisement, receiving applications from prospective candidates and selecting a candidate among the applicants.

The State alleges Mandeya further hired Zunzanyika’s sewing machinery for US$36 without following proper procurement procedures.

It is alleged Gokwe Town Council subsequently paid Zunzanyika US$590 for her services.

The prosecution also alleged that sometime in 2015, Mandeya applied for a residential stand to the council’s human resources department and the department referred the application to the works and services committee, which recommended it before forwarding it to the full council for a resolution.

The State alleges that the full council resolved to allocate Mandeya stand number 156 Kambasha, Gokwe and she signed a lease agreement to that effect.

On September 28, 2017, Mandeya, acting in her official capacity, approached the council housing department and requested to be offered stand number 155 Kambasha, which is adjacent to stand number 156, despite her not being on the residential stands waiting list.

She occupied the stand and erected a precast security wall without formalising the paper work, prejudicing council of US$4 000.

The State further alleges that sometime in March last year, Mandeya required catering services for the service level benchmarking meeting and she invited tenders.

Kiki’s Kitchen, Faith Mashava’s Kitchen and Irene’s Catering Services responded by providing quotations.

It is also alleged that fully aware that the procurement management committee was responsible for handling the tender processes, Mandeya deliberately did not involve the unit and awarded the tender to Irene’s Catering Services, which belongs to her daughter-in-law Irene
Maheva.

Realising that she had flouted the procurement process and that certain documents were required by the finance department to process payments, Mandeya forged Kiki’s Kitchen and Mashava Faith Kitchen’s quotations and pegged their bids at $9 590, compared to Irene’s Catering service’s $8 040.

Mandeya then caused the payment of $4 000 to Irene’s Catering Services and the balance was set off to pay for stand number 187 Kambasha, Gokwe.

Mandeya is accused of disfavouring Gokwe Town Council by allowing it to pay more money than it should have, had the procurement committee been involved.

It is further alleged that Mandeya invited the services of Nerenchia Power Rite Company to supply and install a solar system at Gokwe Town Council without following due process.

Gokwe Town Council had been quoted $325 435 for the power system consisting of 24 by 330 watts solar panels, but Nerenchia allegedly installed 20 by 400 watts solar panels at council and four by 400 watts solar panels were installed at Mandeya’s private residence.

It is alleged the council was likely to pay less had it used the competitive bidding method to procure the said system.

BETWEEN THE LINES:Phillip Chidavaenzi

SOMEONE once said all singers are poets — and that all poets are song writers — and they were probably right. The line that divides music and poetry, in a way, is often too thin to be visible.

Hope Masike — reputed as Zimbabwe’s mbira princess following in the steps of Stella Chiweshe and the late Chioniso Maraire — has decided to unveil to the world the poet that has for too long been shadowed by the musician.

Having made her name as an exquisite mbira player and musician, she recently decided to try her hand professionally at written poetry. In this debut collection of poetry, she turns to her childhood passion, and does so with the same sublime skill she demonstrates on the ancient instrument as she uses carefully selected metaphors and images to share her heart.

Predominantly, love verses that speak to women, and for women, many of the 36 poems collected here plumb the very depths of red-hot passion, and also speak to a range of issues that concern women. These include broken dreams, the search for love, prostitution, loneliness and sex.

By her own admission in the author’s note, the poems are designed to affirm, to confront the silence we so often feel comfortable with and to give voice to those things that have remained unspoken. She writes, “I did these poems in a very ‘open-minded’ effort to find an often silent/silenced voice. There are things we do not ever say. There are things we don’t know how to say. There are things that have never been said.”

Through the crevices of these poems, we come face to face with facets of Masike that we have probably not known before. This is a collector’s gift.

Prior to the publication of the book, Masike told NewsDay Life & Style that some of the poems collected here were quite “steamy”.

“A particularly steamy section of the book shall get many definitely hot, appropriately so as we approach Valentine’s Day,” she said. “So I must add, this is an adult game not for persons below 18 perhaps.”

This particular review focuses more on that section.

The collection opens with the piece, They Are All Paid For, where the poet plays with the image of woman as “sex businesswoman”, “concubine” and “wife”. The portrayal of women in literature has been an area of great contestation. But here, Masike questions the difference between a sex worker, a concubine and a wife, if they have all been paid for. She concludes that it is “Just different homes/Just different names/Just different prices”, but all offering paid-for sex.

In the poem, T for Toy, Masike uses subtlety in a way that makes the poem sound cryptic, but the title and images create a certain, pre-meditated impression in the reader’s mind. This is a flash poem, but loaded with meaning: “It selflessly gives secret pleasures to me/It neither kisses nor kisses and tells/It’s also not warm, but it’s you/Eyes closed, I fantasise/Here, right there.” The question, at the end of the day is: what could be this toy?

A woman’s longing for a man is captured in the poem, I Wish I Had One. Often, in patriarchal societies where women’s narratives are subdued, their personal yearnings, especially those involving love and sex, tend to be criminalised. Such personal desires are simply human, and this is what the persona in this poem puts across strongly, expressing her wish for a man to cavort with, “his head (put) to rest on my soft bosom/His hands, to heat, clenched in between my thighs/His body, my arms and legs enveloping…”

Still on desires, imagine a society where a woman could just go and “kidnap” that man who has been making her turn and toss in bed? In traditional Shona society, there was a custom called musengabere, where a man would literally kidnap the woman he loved and make her his wife. The female persona in the poem, Purple Skies and Yellow Clouds, envisions a society where the tables are turned, “Where musengabere was still allowed/But for women too.” She would hire Petso and Tindo to “grab Fatso by those long legs” and “deliver him right to her sleeping mat”.

Landscape is about the mystery of the woman’s body, itself a source of fascination for men since the beginning of time. Masike uses images of a scenic landscape to describe the woman’s body, with its “wild curves” and “delightful casts” as well as “the dark hairy secrets” and “hills” and “troughs”. It is indeed the “scenic herscape” that delight men, but also, “the very first home” and “nurturer” for all mankind. It is about the complexity of woman.

The fascination resurfaces in Two Pimples and a Tough Behind, where African men’s fascination with well-endowed women comes under the spotlight. The persona, a slender woman, quips to her man: “Do you compare my small bosom to hers?/Mine are just but two pimples on a near-bare chest/Hers are hard, perky hills that dance about as she walks/Do you compare?/Do you compare my small, tough behind to hers?/Mine are just firm enough to sit without hurting on my bones/Hers are wild mountains of womanhood that dance about as she walks/Do you compare?”
The persona, however, will not take the challenge lying down. Despite lacking in physique, she argues, she has other ethereal qualities that should fascinate him in similar fashion because “I was born for you, body and soul/And two pimples and a tough behind”.

It is often said a man is at his most vulnerable and perhaps, his most senseless, during sex. These are unguarded moments when he is “inside” the woman. The poem Inside seems to confirm this because “Inside he can say anything/Inside he can promise anything/Inside he can confess everything…/Inside, where you can find the true him/Inside, where you won’t find his head/Inside, where he is, and lost too.”

The collection, however, includes several other poems with equally fascinating themes. It is a bold pronunciation of Masike’s arrival on the literary scene, and one can only hope that this is just the beginning of several more poetry collections to come.
The collection is set to be launched this Friday in time for Valentine’s Day.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

ASX-listed lithium company, Prospect Resources (Prospect) says discussions with Uranium One are still ongoing, but there is no guarantee that they will result in a formal binding agreement or any
transaction.

In December last year, Prospect indicated that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Uranium One, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian State nuclear energy firm, affording the Russian company a 90-day exclusive period to complete due diligence on Prospect and its Arcadia Lithium Mine.

After a 90-day period to complete due diligence, Prospect said the agreement would allow Uranium One to negotiate acquiring at least 51% of Prospect’s future lithium production from its flagship Arcadia Lithium Mine.

“The discussions with Uranium One are incomplete and ongoing and there is no guarantee that the MoU or any discussions with Uranium One will result in a formal binding agreement or proposal or as to the timing or terms on which any transaction may proceed,” Prospect said in its quarterly activity report ended December 31, 2019.

Prospect said it finished the quarter with A$1,13 million cash at bank and subsequently up to December 31, 2019, it raised an additional A$0,97m.

It also has US$10 million funding commitment from offtake partner Sinomine on placement of ball mill.

Prospect will continue to focus on cost control while advancing discussions with Uranium One and Afreximbank.

In December last year, it appointed African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to arrange and manage the primary syndication of a US$143m project finance debt facility.

Afreximbank is proposing to fund and hold US$75m of the facility. The parties have also agreed a non-binding indicative debt facility term sheet.

“The appointment of Afreximbank as mandated lead arranger is a critical milestone in the financing of the Arcadia lithium project in Zimbabwe. The parties will now undertake further detailed due diligence and negotiate the final facility agreements,” reads part of the report.

“Execution of the facility agreements will be subject to Afreximbank’s further due diligence and credit approvals and drawdown will be subject to satisfaction of various conditions precedent to be included in the agreements.”

BY MOSES MATENGA

A sharp stench forces schoolchildren to cover their noses as they negotiate their way home through an open space in Warren Park 1, a suburb in the capital, Harare, after a rainy day.

The five of them inaudibly mumble something as they pass through the huge pile of garbage that includes used diapers and rotten food that has not found takers among stray dogs.

The garbage includes black council plastic litter bins that ideally should be collected by the garbage collectors, who of late have been conspicuous by their absence.

That has become a common sight in most surburbs of the capital, high density or low density.

“We have no choice but to throw waste here. Otherwise we can’t bear the air pollution. We can’t stand the stench of rotten stuff from the litter bins in our backyard. Collection of refuse by council has been erratic,” one woman says in Warren Park, one of the many suburbs affected by the erratic collection of garbage.

Piles of uncollected garbage have become the order of the day even in the central business district, with council struggling to collect.

With no clear plan from the city fathers, residents have resorted to the easy way: Taking their loads of rubbish to any nearby open space and dump it there, although this attracts a fine from council.

“This option is deadly as it exposes our children to diseases but the options we have are limited,” one resident said.

This, observers say, is a clear indicator that the council’s Vision 2025 remained a pipe dream and Harare will never become a world-class city by then unless there is a serious turnaround programme that should leave no stone unturned.

Only four years remain and it seems the plan is in flames and the move towards Vision 2025 has been derailed.

And the blame game continues amid a multi-faceted crisis that also includes the water challenges and massive corruption among other challenges the city is faced with.

But what really are the challenges? Environmental management committee chairperson, Councillor Kudzai Kanzombe fumed at the lackadaisical approach to duty by the workers saying heads should roll if nothing is done to change the work ethic in council on refuse collection.

Kanzombe told NewsDay that it was no longer business as usual in the local authority and councillors were now lighting fire under the workers’ chairs to ensure work is done.

It emerged there was huge theft of council truck parts and exchanging old ones for new ones in some cases, a situation that further riled the elected officials.

The Kanzombe-led committee toured Highfield, Kopje, Mugombe automobile workshops and Nenyere workshop, where they encountered compactors that were down for simple things such as ATF oil, batteries and springs.

“We did a tour after noticing discrepancies in the reports we received. We made a resolution to have our waste management fleet repaired and increased from the 22 that we had to 46. We later noticed that with all the financial resources we were investing in the fleet it was actually decreasing,” Kanzombe said.

Ideally, council should have 46 running trucks at any given time to service all the 46 wards in Harare.

She said a resolution was made to closely monitor workshops to avoid theft, but it was not implemented, a clear indication that council workers were determined to continue engaging in criminal activities.

“We heard allegations of new parts being stolen and swapped for refurbished ones. There was a tender that was awarded for CCTV 2 years ago to minimise the thefts but until now there has been no delivery,” Kanzombe said.

“There has to be a complete change of work culture in the city of Harare if we ever are to attain the smart city status by 2025. As policy makers it is our mandate to ensure that residents get more than the value for their money as we are the people’s councillors.”

“A payment was then made to procure and fix the vehicles with a highly monitored programme, and an equipment requesting procedure that makes it possible for an increase in our fleet to ensure better service delivery for our residents.”

Stakeholders have also accused the local authority of misplaced priorities and focusing on sponsoring football instead of service provision.

During a meeting late last year, Ward 16 councillor Denford Ngadziore fumed over the matter, saying it was foolhardy to have council sponsoring football, Harare City FC in the premier league and another Division One team plus an academy while service delivery has plummeted.

“We have never heard that the soccer team has failed to attend any match outside Harare because there is no fuel but we always here that refuse is not being collected because there is no fuel. What are our priorities as a city and what should be our priorities under the circumstances,” Ngadziore snapped.

A decision is yet to be made on whether council will continue sponsoring football with information committee chairperson councillor Barnabas Ndira insisting the local authority was looking for outside sponsors to finance sporting activities within the local authority.

While councillors blame the workers, observers said the local authority was coming short on paying their workers on time and opening up avenues for looting and corruption for them to survive, something Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba questioned last year when he asked how workers were surviving in the tough economic environment in the country.