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Dr Joseph Made

Business Reporter
THE government has engaged a Chinese firm to set up a $100 million manufacturing firm that will provide graders and earth moving machinery to local authorities on credit for road construction and maintenance.Local authorities countrywide are struggling to repair roads, most of which are littered with potholes, due to lack of equipment and limited revenue inflows.

The poor road infrastructure is a thorn in the flesh for the motoring public and has been blamed for accidents and loss of life.

Speaking during question time in Parliament last week, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who was standing in for Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo, said establishing a new firm was part of the government’s efforts to capacitate councils to ensure they fulfilled their service delivery mandate effectively.

“The government is working on the recapitalisation of all local authorities and has already engaged a Chinese firm, which shall set up a manufacturing plant in the country to the value of $100 million,” said Made.

“Local authorities will access the equipment on credit. Efforts have been made to continue with recapitalisation initiative as outlined under the Zim-Asset with each constituency having received one motorised grader from Zinara across the country.”

Earlier on Beitbridge West MP Metrine Mudau had asked whether Chombo’s ministry would consider increasing the number of graders and earth moving equipment required for the road construction in her constituency.

During the debate legislators sought clarity on allegations that some graders that were given to local authorities by Zinara in 2013 were slow and not suitable for the country’s climate.

In response Made said there was a need to first assess whether the graders were unsuitable for the country’s climate.

“We’ll look into that matter but we should not just assert that they’re unsuitable. We’ve to look at each item. It could also be a question of adjusting the engines adequately,” he said.

“I’m aware from a mechanisation point of view that you’ve to look at that particular aspect. We must have hard facts to see which graders have failed and what the technical reason is. It remains an administrative issue and it’s a thing we should look at technically.”