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Oliver Kazunga, Acting Business Editor

BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) requires an estimated US$700 million to urgently rehabilitate 70 percent of its 2 389km road network, the Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni has said.

In his New Year message, Cllr Mguni on Wednesday said 70 percent of the city’s road network was an eye-sore due to lack of funding to rehabilitate the infrastructure.

“The city has a total road network of 2 389km with 70 percent of its total network in poor condition and requiring urgent rehabilitation works (reconstruction and overlays). 

“Lack of funding has affected the current state of road network and approximately US$700 million is required to bring the network to good condition,” he said.

“Current funding levels are way below this figure.” 

Despite the constraints of fuel supply, constant plant and equipment breakdowns as well as limited road repair materials, Cllr Mguni said BCC made progress in rehabilitating the roads.

He said the local authority hopes to meet its funding requirements to improve the condition of the city’s roads. “We will continue to use funds disbursed by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration to attend to the city’s road infrastructure in 2020 and beyond,” he said, urging residents to pay their bills timeously for council to improve on service delivery.

The local authority has this year also planned a number of projects aimed at improving the social well-being of residents such as housing provision as well as water supply and sewer reticulation.

“To achieve all the planned projects for the city in 2020, we need to work together with our residents and stakeholders in ensuring that we all timeously pay our bills and improve on revenue efficiency in accordance with the 2020 budget.

“The year 2020 total budget is estimated at $2,7 billion made up of the revenue budget of $1,3 billion and the capital budget of $1,4 billion,” said Cllr Mguni.

The budget, he said, was resubmitted to the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing on December 3, 2019 and was awaiting approval. It is hoped that the council will pursue its quest for continuous improvement in service delivery, exploring as much initiatives as possible as well as partnerships and collaborations relevant to the planned strategic agenda. “Council is focused on improving E-governance in a bid to improve communication with its stakeholders and residents.

“We have been working on updating our website to ensure that it is responsive and interactive and can be accessed with ease,” he said. — @okazunga.