Summit 2018 – Mutare City Council COE

The City of Mutare is located in the Eastern Highlands close to the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It is Zimbabwe’s closest city to the sea making it the most strategic location for transport costs sensitive import and export-oriented enterprises. For this reason in particular, Mutare has been considered as Zimbabwe’s gateway to the Indian Ocean. Mutare is the capital of Manicaland province and covers an area of approximately 16 700 hectares. It is situated 263 kilometres east of Harare and 290 kilometres west of the Port of Beira, Mozambique. The council has a website. In addition, the council has a Facebook page and twitter handle.

The City of Mutare council has a gender policy that was adopted and put in place in 2015 that it is aligned to the Sustainable Development Goal targets. They also have a number of gender systems that guide their operations vis-à-vis gender and service provision. The council has 18 councillors (15 male councillors and 3 female).

Mutare City Council has seven committees and only is chaired by women. Council has a junior council through which young people participate and air their concerns. The junior council is composed of more girls than boys and the mayor is female.

In Mutare young people, people with disabilities and women in the community participate mostly in budget consultative and ward feedback meetings. Between 51 and 76 percent, women participate in these consultations and meetings.

Mutare has a total workforce of 1085, of whom 372 are women. Of the 13 managers in the council, only 5 are women. The Finance Director, Chief Internal Auditor, Director, Housing and Community Services Department and the Human Resource Manager are some of the women employed in non-traditional jobs in council.

Zimbabwe by law prescribes for 3 months paid maternity leave thus Mutare provisions for it. However, there is no paternity leave. The council has a sexual harassment policy which is also ingrained in the employee’s conditions of service. The council has ensured Disability-friendly access at the Town House to ensure ease of access for people with disability.

Mutare City Council allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects, these amounts have increased from 2016 to 2017.

Mutare City Council works with the police and Ministry of Gender to curb violence in the town. All Gender-Based Violence cases are forwarded to the Police Victim Friendly Unit while policing forums are set-up with the help of the Ministry of Gender.

Perhaps one of the major highlights of the council is the notion that it has managed to allocate housing to 61 women (75%) of the 98 people who were allocated housing by the council.

Click here to read more about Mutare City Council.