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Cde Nduna

Chronicle Reporter
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development has embarked on a countrywide assessment of road projects funded by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara).The committee, chaired by Chegutu West MP, Cde Dexter Nduna, visited Victoria Falls on Monday and was in Bulawayo and Plumtree on Wednesday.

The team met council officials in both local authorities and discussed challenges they faced in road maintenance.

It also made an assessment of progress in the rehabilitation of the $206 million Plumtree-Mutare Highway ahead of its official commissioning next month.

During the tour Cde Nduna said his team wanted to understand how the $206 million loan, sourced from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), was used.

“The local authorities we met agree that it (funding) was optimally utilised. That, in my view, attests to accountability on the part of the road fund. The Plumtree-Mutare Highway speaks a lot on the issues of good workmanship, professionalism on the part of our consultants and engineers and sense of ownership on the part of the road users,” said Cde Nduna.

“That was the basic reason for the interrogation and the visits we carried out. The local authorities were the entry point. In a way, the road users have indicated and pointed the primary use of the loan to the rehabilitation of the highway.”

He said the committee was satisfied with progress made in Victoria Falls but noted that local authorities were unhappy with the amounts of money allocated to them by Zinara. “Complaints of inadequate funding by local authorities can be dealt with in the short to medium term. As a committee we leave that issue to Zinara and local authorities to converge. It’s purely an administrative issue,” he said.

He commended Plumtree Town Council for showing the zeal to rehabilitate their road network despite limited resources. Apart from Zinara funds, Plumtree partnered with other players to rehabilitate other roads in the town.

Cde Nduna labelled the Bulawayo City Council a “cry baby” while noting that the City of Kings has the best road network in the country.

Zimbabwe requires close to $4 billion to spruce up its 88,000km of road network.

“The present state of our roads leaves a lot to be desired. They’ve not been taken care of in a long while. Some roads have outlived their design lifespan. It’s a fact that big mining companies reside near trunk roads and we’ve been entertaining the idea of having a road tax introduced that would be contributed as a percentage by the miners. It would go a long way in sprucing up our roads near where they operate from.

“Mining companies can do better by contributing to that. Trunk roads reside where a lot of mining activities take place,” he said.

The Zinara executive would appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure on June 15 to answer questions on their operations.

The committee, however, said Zinara has done a good job and stressed the need to find alternative ways of financing road development outside tolling and road licence fees.

Road infrastructure is critical for economic development as it has an effect on attracting investment and delivery of key goods and services.