admin
George Maponga in Masvingo
Masvingo City Council has set up a multi-million dollar deal with Zesa for the installation of nearly 3 000 street lights as part of the drive by authorities in the country’s oldest city to attain world class status by the year 2030.
The installation of street lights would improve safety and security after the entire city street lighting system had almost collapsed.
Council and Zesa were for years haggling over maintenance of the street lights and the matter spilled into the courts.
However, the inking of a new deal to revamp the street lighting system means Masvingo city and Zesa have now smoked a peace pipe.
Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa yesterday confirmed the two parties had struck a deal to install streets lights in Masvingo city.
“We have signed a deal with Zesa for them to install street lights in the city and this is a welcome development that we think dovetails with Vision 2030 and also pushes the thrust to become a world class city over the next decade, said Engineer Mukaratirwa.
According to the deal that we signed, Zesa will install about 2 800 street lights across the city and this will completely change the face of Masvingo City.
Engineer Mukaratirwa said residents would be charged an extra levy to recoup the costs. We agreed to repay Zesa for the street lighting fund in instalments until we exhaust our dent so we are likely going to introduce a street lights levy that will be paid until we clear our arrears to the power utility.
Zesa will also upgrade the substation feeding power into the city in light of the projected spike in demand for power in Masvingo.
Besides the street lights, Zesa also needs to cope with the rise in power demand, with the largest increase coming from the expansion project by SIMBI a subsidiary of Steelmakers.
SIMBI, currently Masvingo’s only heavy industry is undergoing expansion that will result in sponge iron beneficiation to produce stainless steel.
Besides the SIMBI project, Government has already started electrification of more than 10 000 houses in Victoria Ranch, a new suburb in the western fringes of the city.
Online Reporter