City okays $28m roads budget

Nokutenda Chiyangwa Herald Reporter
THE Harare City Council has approved a supplementary budget of $28,4 million for road maintenance programmes after it received additional funding from Government. According to recent minutes of the Finance and Development Committee, works director Eng Zvenyika Chawatama told councillors that there was need to provide a larger supplementary budget for road maintenance as the money council had initially approved was not enough.

He said council had assumed that a sum of $2,5 million would be received from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) in line with the parastatal’s statutory obligations.

“However, Zinara allocated $12,9 million for the rehabilitation of the city’s roads under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation programme,” read the minutes.

Eng Chawatama explained that Government indicated that they would be providing a further $18 million under the “hotspots” programme.

He also further requested for a supplementary budget as he had done before in a report dated April 17.
“The Director of Works was now requesting a supplementary budget of $28,4 million for road maintenance. The committee resolved that a supplementary capital estimate amounting to $28 400 000 be allocated to road maintenance under vote item 3526:2331 be approved on the grounds that the expenditure could not reasonably have been anticipated when the annual estimates were under consideration,” read the minutes.

Harare City Council recently acquired $19 million worth of road maintenance equipment under the $30 million loan facility accessed from local banks for recapitalisation.

The city has already taken delivery of a new asphalt chipping spreader valued at over $265 000 from a local company.
The delivery coincided with the roll-out of the council’s citywide road maintenance programme funded to the tune of $24 million.

Under the loan facility, Harare also bought 30 refuse compactors from FAW Group Corporation, for $3,1 million and the first nine trucks were delivered, together with five rollers worth $546 000

Meanwhile, the city council has finalised the joint venture agreement with Olshevik Investments for the re-development and modernisation of Mbare Musika and Civic Centre.

According to the recent council minutes, the Business Committee approved the joint venture unit established in terms of Section 3 of the Joint Ventures Act (Chapter 22:22) to redevelop the areas.
The Committee felt that the matter had taken too long to be conducted and requested the Acting Town Clerk, Engineer Hosiah Chisango, to urgently finalise the matter.