Sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up… The Harare City Councilors have given an ultimatum to the town clerk Hosiah Chisango. What do the City councillors want? They want iPads. When do they want them? Well, it seems like NOW is the answer to that question as 31 October is the deadline they’ve set.
Minutes from a recent council meeting revealed the ridiculous demands and apparently, the iPads are necessary because councillors want to avoid consumption of paper. Secondly, having iPads will also mean that the councillors are equipped with the latest information technology gadgets. I understand why they would want them and I’m all for them having iPads but I also smell some serious entitlement. According to the NewsDay, part of the minutes read:
It is resolved that the town clerk be tasked to ensure that councillors and relevant officials are provided with I-pads by October 31, 2018.
To make matters worse, it seems this is not the first time iPads have been the at the forefront of the disgruntlement of councillors as its reported that the previous council threatened to boycott council meetings if they didn’t get the iPads they were promised. How absurd is that? Public servants refusing to serve the public over iPads? Surely we have more pressing problems.
Look, I understand that a promise is a credit -as we used to say as kids- but is this enough reason for Councilors to throw their local governance toys out of the pram? I don’t think so.
Why is this a thing?
I mean having Councilors who have iPads would be cool. This is the digital age after all. But you know what would be cooler; having councillors who can afford iPads in the first place. If anything this shouldn’t even be a story but if you needed a reminder of how out-of-touch the people who are supposed to be serving citizens are, here’s another reminder
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12 comments
Why do they want IPads. What work are they doing with those I PADS. These people are mad. Corruption haipere in this country
Fixing mindset problems will take a lot of time…
Same as Members of Parliament who are demanding vehicles from the minister of finance when the country is burning …
They want ipads …. Seriously??…. Their service delivery sucks and now they want ipads .. What for? Candy crush? If they want to strike they might as well get fired mutipe isusu mabasa,, we can even work on ma typewriters…..
One would expect that they are serving out of passion but clearly there are other motives
Don’t give them those iPads we’re keen to see what they will do. Buy yourselves any device you want, you were elected to serve not demand or extort. Give us clean water first, collect rubbish, banish cholera THEN expect reward AFTER that, not before.
And the reasons behind those demands are crazy too! “We need iPads so that we cut down on the paper being used…” *rolls eyes*
Eish, this is a sad story indeed. Why do they wast iPads? Wouldn’t another mid-range tablet suffice for the work they need to do? I say they write a justification outlining why they need iPads, the advantages both technically and commercially against other devices on the market. This should be a simple issue to resolve. If they can provide concrete justification then they get them. But in this case, they don’t have any. Harare is suffering from Cholera outbreaks, poor service delivery etc. etc. That’s enough to throw whatever argument they pose out the window.
Exactly, I’m sure they can make do with some other mid-range tablets but no, “it must be an iPad!”
iPad is really cool and faster .
I Know one More
https://www.fluper.com/hire-iphone-developer
I have to say why in the world do they need Ipads. I am sure most of them have computers and these do all the work of any ipad – I would suggest we see how they perform on service delivery etc before we give them anything – they chose to stand for office – did they only do this because they wanted and ipad – if so lets replace them immediately. How sad a state of affairs – if this is the call I doubt our city is going to be improved in anyway at all.
Downgrade all these guys to $150 chrome books, and garnish their salaries to pay for them.