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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO province has completed 30 of 69 development projects in line with the Second Republic’s commitment towards accelerating the betterment of livelihoods of all Zimbabweans and attaining an upper middle-income society by 2030, Cabinet heard yesterday.

Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, told journalists in a post-Cabinet media briefing that the projects cover different areas of development and mainly fall under the Government’s 100-day cycle initiative.

One of the revamped staff residences at Mpilo Hospital

Some of them include the installation of new pumping equipment, rehabilitation of water and sewer treatment plants in the city, refurbishment of Siyephambili Road, the reconstruction of Mpilo Central Hospital’s staff residence and the IDBZ student hostels construction.

The minister said Cabinet received a list of projects implemented by the Second Republic in 2021 whose report was presented by the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in charge of Monitoring and Implementation of Government Programmes, Dr Joram Gumbo.

According to the report, Zimbabwe has 1 688 projects implemented during the period January to December 2021 and out of these 655 are complete, while implementation of 1 033 is ongoing.

Dr Joram Gumbo

“The projects include infrastructure and utilities; that is roads, airports, dams, irrigation, housing and energy, human capital development, construction of schools, provision of ICT equipment, social protection, support for the elderly through BEAM and support for the children in schools, health and wellbeing, provision of an enabling environment for health service delivery,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

She gave a rundown of each province and the number of projects that have been completed and those outstanding.

“A summary of the distribution of projects according to provinces is as follows — For Bulawayo Metropolitan province, for example, there are a total of 69 projects, 30 of which have been completed and 39 are ongoing.

“Harare Metropolitan, has 182 projects and 79 are completed and 103 are still ongoing,” said the minister.

Minister Monica Mutsvangwa

“Manicaland Province has a total of 274 projects, with 84 complete, and 190 ongoing. Mashonaland Central province has 119 projects in total 45 are complete, and 74 are ongoing. Mashonaland East province has 265 projects and 119 have been completed, and 146 are still ongoing. Mashonaland West province has 112 total projects and 51 are complete and 61 are ongoing.

“Masvingo province has got 167 projects and 72 are complete and 95 are ongoing. Midlands Province has 156 total projects and 56 are complete and 100 are ongoing. Matabeleland North province has 210 projects and 68 are complete and 142 are ongoing. And finally, Matabeleland South has 134 projects and 51 are complete whilst 83 are ongoing.”

Minister Mutsvangwa said Zimbabwe was heading in the right direction under the Second Republic evidenced by the robust implementation of the projects, which demonstrate commitment towards accelerating the betterment of livelihoods of all citizens.

The infrastructure and utility clusters constitute the highest number of projects, which contribute more to the realisation of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), a policy blueprint spanning 2021 and 2025.

These are aligned to Government performance management and many of them are already at different stages of implementation.

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