Acting Director of Health Service, Simon Mashababe said although the council had achieved a lot in terms of improving health delivery system to its residents, the local authority had serious challenges in hiring qualified staff to fill up critical positions within the council.
Mashababe said: “While we are trying to provide top-class service to our residents, the council is still facing challenges in hiring qualified personnel. For example, the city has one engineer instead of having five and we should have at least two doctors to work in our clinics but we do not even have one. It is a major challenge.”
Pressed further to explain why the council was facing difficulties in hiring qualified staff, Mashababe said: “The major reason is that the council doesn’t have the money to pay these qualified personnel. This is the reason why many of the qualified staff have been snubbing the remuneration offered by the council.”
He said the engineering and health departments were very important sections that required urgent and maximum attention, as they played a pivotal role in service delivery in the city.
Mashababe said the health section was at the moment working closely with trained clinical officers who would refer serious cases to Sakubva and St Josephs district hospitals and Mutare Provincial Hospital.
He was, however, hopeful that the council would be able to overcome the problem.
“Inasmuch as council would want to fill up all the vacant posts, we are very hopeful that we will be able to hire the qualified staff. We will reconsider re-advertising the critical posts so that we can move forward in our mission to improve service delivery,” said Mashababe.
