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Gweru City Council House

Sharon Chiware, Midlands Reporter
GWERU City Council (GCC) has received two state- of -the art earth moving machines worth over $250 000 which are part of equipment worth $1,2 million council has bought for road maintenance.

On Monday, GCC received a backhoe truck valued at $92 895 after receiving a grader valued at $158 000 last week.

A local company Rubitech was awarded a tender to supply the equipment which includes a grader, bulldozer, backhoe and an excavator last year, but there has been a delay in delivering the machinery.

Gweru Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza said all the equipment was supposed to have been delivered last year, but so far they have received the grader and backhoe truck.

She said the delay in delivering the equipment had resulted in council failing to maintain and rehabilitate its road network.

“We have managed so far to receive a backhoe truck and a grader only. They keep telling us that they are yet to be allocated foreign currency for them to bring in the equipment,” she said.

“The process has hampered our plans to repair our roads and servicing Mkoba 21 stands. The failure of delivering these machines means a total delay in fixing up the roads.”

Meanwhile, Ms Gwatipedza said Nissan Clover Company which was expected to deliver 10 pick-up trucks to council has said five trucks will be ready for delivery in the first week of May.

The trucks, she said, would also be used to improve service delivery.

Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Jason Machaya told the Chronicle that roads in Gweru in particular and the Midlands province at large were in a bad state following heavy rains earlier this year.

He said some of the roads need to be reconstructed.

“Some of our roads need to be rehabilitated immediately because they were excessively damaged by the rains,” said Minister Machaya.

@sharonchiware1