Parastatals boards reshuffle looms

THE Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Dr Jorum Gumbo has announced plans to reshuffle all boards of parastatals that fall under his ministry.

Dr Gumbo said the move was meant to achieve gender and regional parity on boards of state enterprises.

He was responding to concerns over skewed regional representation on boards of parastatals.

The transport minister revealed that he would start by appointing a new Civil Aviation Authority (CAAZ) board with 50 percent of the members being female. He said he will also select suitable candidates from all the country’s 10 province to achieve regional parity.

“Take it from me. I have not appointed heads of parastatals, but I will. I will change them because I want gender balance. Most of those parastatals are biased towards men. We have got more men than women. I’m appointing a new CAAZ board and it will be 50/50 (male and female representation). I will not forget you (Bulawayo), I will go province by province. That’s what I will do.

“All heads of my parastatals are not coming from Bulawayo. Let me be frank with you which I normally do. I have not myself appointed those heads, I found them there. I only appointed and replaced one that is at NRZ. The person who was there does not come from Matabeleland, he comes from the Midlands province and was replaced by another Midlander (sic) again, Larry Mavhima. Other than that, those that are there were appointed by the former minister (Dr Obert Mpofu), that’s the truth,” he said.

Dr Gumbo in March this year appointed businessman Mr Larry Mavhima as NRZ board chairman to replace Mr Alvord Mabhena who was relieved of his duties in November last year. There have been concerns on the manner in which candidates for boards of State enterprises were being selected. Apart from NRZ and CAAZ, other parastatals under the ministry include Air Zimbabwe, Zinara, Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, CMED and Zupco.