Chronicle EditorThupeyo Muleya Senior Reporter
A government’s major priorities include transforming and improving
people’s quality of life and expanding opportunities to determine their own destiny through higher incomes, better education and health care, protected environment, gender equality, freedom and security.
In this sense, the Zimbabwean Government undertook to develop all major centres across the country, especially those previously viewed as remote during the colonial era.
Social, economic, cultural and political transformation in a society are some of the key factors towards achieving these goals.
But when one looks at Beitbridge town, no significant improvement is there to talk about, especially when one looks at the much needed development and service delivery.
In short, this has been a tale of good intentions, without action.
The year 2006 was a turning point for development in Beitbridge when Government through the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) sought to give Beitbridge town a facelift.
This massive civil works programme is mainly centred on developing the once neglected growth point into a modern city.
President Mugabe officially launched the Beitbridge Redevelopment exercise in 2007, saying Government wanted to turn Beitbridge growth point into fully fledged modern city.
He tasked the Ministry of Local Government, National Housing and Public Works to oversee the implementation of the project.
The redevelopment programme entailed the construction of 16 blocks of flats to house 64 families, mainly middle class civil servants, 250 corehouses for home ownership, 52 F14 houses for civil servants, road dualisation, upgrading of water supply and sewer infrastructure have been completed.
The construction of institutional facilities such as a hospital, primary school, secondary school, civic centre, Government composite office block, modern truck-inn, shopping complex, a 5-star hotel, an aerodrome and the upgrading of the current border post to meet world class standards are part of the Beitbridge development programme.
Only a third of these projects have been completed so far and some are at various stages of construction. The delay in completing this project, which stopped receiving budget allocation from treasury in 2009, is worrisome.
A number of inter-ministerial task teams have visited Beitbridge on various fact finding missions and it turns out that chief among the challenges is the unavailability of accommodation.
The issue (accommodation shortages) is affecting efficiency at the border and other Government departments including health, immigration and The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (zimra) workers.
It is understood that Government needs around $10 million to complete the remaining civil works especially on the 64 garden flats which were earmarked to house middle class residents.
The 64 garden flats have started succumbing to wear and tear due to neglect as most of them are semi-finished.
Some of the houses which were abandoned at roofing level now have roofing trusses rotting while walls on some buildings have also developed cracks. The delay by Government in allowing the National Social Security Authority (nssa) to take over the construction works has exacerbated the accommodation woes.
A total of 170 000 people, 2 100 buses, 25 000 private cars and 15 000 trucks pass through the border town every month while the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority collects around $1,5 million per day.
The Herald is reliably informed that Zimbabwe National Road Agency (ZINARA) also collects a total of $1,6 million in bridge toll fees per month.
Furthermore, ZINARA collects $8 000 at both toll gates leading to Harare and Bulawayo per day.
It is also understood that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development is collecting $60 000 a day from the border.
ZIMRA reportedly contributes 30 percent of Government revenue and 70 percent of that comes from Beitbridge alone.
At the moment, ZIMRA is working with a low-strength staff complement of 307 workers against a requirement of 526.
Several other Government departments are also working with skeleton staff due to perennial accommodation woes in Beitbridge.
ZIMRA and Immigration authorities at the border told an inter-ministerial team led by Home Affairs minister that infrastructure shortages were also affecting the speed implementation of the one-stop-border post concept between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Under the one-stop-border-post concept, travellers and importers will be cleared once for passage into either country.
At the moment, travellers and importers/exporters have to queue twice to gain access into either country.
The proposed Beitbridge Bridge Fund which was muted by Government soon after it assumed ownership of the New Limpopo Bridge from a private company, New Limpopo Bridge (NLB) in June 2014, has been mothballed.
Money realised from the toll fees at Beitbridge should have been channelled into the Beitbridge Bridge Fund (BBF) which would have been used to upgrade the border post and various key infrastructure in the border town.
South Africa will also have a similar arrangement where the money will be used in developing their trade corridor and the town of Musina.
However, the idea has just remained an intention with none willing to follow it up.
It is high time the Government started to allocate resources to projects in order of priority.
For a Government getting most of its revenue from Beitbridge, they need to come up with a deliberate policy to allocate say 3 percent of revenue collected at this port per month or annually to key capital projects such as housing and road infrastructure.
The Government should also look at engaging other development agencies for private public partnerships to address the issue of housing challenges.
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