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Minister Kasukuwere

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
MAJOR towns should seriously consider embracing urban tolling to widen their revenue collection bases, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.

Addressing delegates at the ongoing inaugural Local Government Investment Conference here, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, reignited the contentious debate on urban tolling.

A proposal to introduce tollgates in urban centres sparked debate when then Minister of Transport Obert Mpofu pitched it some three years ago with the motoring public against the proposal.

Minister Kasukuwere said the strategy was relevant as a way of raising funding to finance infrastructural development and decongesting the city centres.

He said the Government was only tolling a few vehicles on major trunk roads hence there was a need for local authorities to harness the opportunity and partner the Transport Ministry in urban tolling.

“Urban transport is another key deliverable for our urban settlements. The influx of imported second hand vehicles has seen an unprecedented increase in volume of traffic on our roads resulting in road carnage and traffic jams.

“This sector strongly requires game changing strategies like tolling of urbanites so that we improve intra-city road networks so we attend to potholes and ‘mini-Karibas’. For Harare and Bulawayo, why not consider toll fees as a revenue source? Let’s look at the number of vehicles that never leave the city and will never pass through a toll gate. If they can be tolled would we not be able to get enough revenue for development?” said Minister Kasukuwere.

He added that a majority of rich urbanites were not contributing to development of road infrastructure as they only drive within the city centre from home to work and use air transport whenever they travel between major cities.

The minister also said pirate urban transporters, popularly known as umshika shika, cannot be allowed to continue.

He challenged local authorities to position themselves to attract finance for bulk infrastructure as well as market themselves to lure investors.

“We need a radical departure from the culture of bureaucracy to a modern sustainable development paradigm. As local authorities we should tap into new knowledge systems and embrace technology because you can’t continue to use century old system of running towns,” he said.

Minister Kasukuwere said the time for conflict within councils was over as that negates development.

He urged councils to prioritise capital infrastructure in their 2017 budgets.

The conference is being held under the theme: “Repositioning urban local authorities as agents for industrial, investment promotion and socio-economic development” and ends today.

Turning to corruption in local authorities involving parcelling out of land by councillors, the minister said no councillor or MP is authorised to sell land to anybody. He urged local authorities to stop internal fights and focus on developmental projects.

@ncubeleon