Govt orders re-run of TSCZ interviews

THE government has ordered a re-run of the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) managerial post interviews, saying the initial process was flawed and marred by irregularities.

NewsDay is reliably informed that the parastatal’s operations manager post has been nullified following reports that the recruitment process was done in an improper way with fresh interviews to be conducted soon.

The post fell vacant a couple of months ago following the exit of Paul Utete.

It is reported that some board members then approached the Transport ministry recommending a re-run to be conducted, in a move that is meant to bring transparency into the whole process, accusing TSCZ of gross violation of the Corporate Governance Act.

Transport and Infrastructure Development minister Joel Biggie Matiza could neither confirm nor deny the latest developments at the troubled organisation.

“I will get back to you once I get all the facts, I am currently travelling,” he said.

It is reported that the Gift Machengeteled board nullified the initial process due to massive irregularities and a plethora of anomalies, among them shortlisting internal candidates for the interviews.

Machengete yesterday confirmed that they recommended a re-run of the whole process and that they will not tolerate “such nonsense”.

“I was not happy with how the process was conducted. I had to bring this to the attention of the government, hence the order for a re-run. I indicated to them the loopholes,” he said.

“Some of these things happened before I became part of the organisation. The process was done unprofessionally, I had to probe certain developments. It

doesn’t show openness and I did not go along with it.”

Recently, government appointed Machengete as acting board chairperson replacing Albert Mugabe, with the former being tasked to bring sanity to the organisation, especially on corporate governance issues.

Currently, TSCZ is operating without a managing director after government refused to renew Obio Chinyere’s contract.

NewsDay is reliably informed that a total of four internal candidates were shortlisted and interviewed on January 18 this year.

This did not go well with some board members who were of the view of having some of the shortlisted candidates being outsiders.

It is also reported that one of the employees has been in an acting capacity for a director’s post since 2018 among other irregularities.