Zimbabwe plans to remove lecturers from Public Service Commission

This guarantee academic independence and objectivity for modernisation and industrialisation.  The move is intended to ensure that we retain or attract the best brains in the tertiary institutions to facilitate the industrialisation and modernisation of Zimbabwe.

Consequently, all promotion procedures for tertiary institutions should be regulated under the Act in order to ensure compliance with the Zimbabwe national qualifications framework.

Principle 2; it deals with academic and professional training to be done under this Act.  The provisions of the Act which deals with professional skills and academic training will be amended to ensure that both academic, skills and professional training as well as registration and control of professional bodies is done under the Act to make sure that we have one manpower direction so that we industrialise and modernise our country.

In addition, the Act will be amended to give the Minister more powers to control the professional bodies in order to achieve quality training and professional standards aimed at industrialisation and modernisation of Zimbabwe through the production of goods and services.

On Principle number 3, good governance, in terms of Section 9 of the Constitution, the State must adopt and implement policies and legislation to develop efficiency, competence, accountability, transparency, integrity and financial probity in all institutions and agencies of Government at every level and in every public institution.  These include the appointments to public offices that must made primarily on the basis of merit and that measures must be taken to expose, combat and eradicate all forms of corruption and abuse of power by those holding public offices.  This will further strengthen and emphasise the law as provided by the Public Entities’ Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10.31].  We intend to reform the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund to align with it good corporate governance practice by putting in place a board.  The Minister responsible for administration of the Act will give policy direction to the board. This Principle seeks to entrench the principle of good governance as enshrined in Section 9 of the Constitution.

We also propose that the national manpower advisory council NAMCO be given additional powers and be strengthened to have control over professional bodies and call manpower related activities in order for it to fully deliver its mandate for the industrialisation and modernisation of Zimbabwe.  Therefore it entails amending part III and part V as well as other provisions of the Act that speak to ZIMDEF and NAMACO in order to incorporate the envisaged changes in a way that ensures good corporate governance.

PRINCIPLE 4: Management of Statutory Bodies.  Section 316 of the Constitution governs the management of statutory bodies including ZIMDEF. These include their competent and effective operation and that the Chief Executive Officers serve for a limited period whose renewal is dependent on the efficient performance of their duties. The Act is to be aligned to the Constitution to incorporate the management of statutory bodies to give effect to the constitutional position and the position as provided for in the Public Finance Management Act.

In addition, all sections that provide  for contracts of employment will be amended to satisfy that the contract of employment should be performance based and with a specific time limit.

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