Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya,
Beitbridge Bureau
THE disbursement of devolution funds by the Government to local authorities from the year 2019 has helped bridge the service delivery gap within Beitbridge Rural District Council.
Prior to the latest development, the local authority with a limited revenue base has been struggling to offer people-centred service delivery.
With 15 administrative wards, the council is still to increase the number of education and health facilities and attend to some infrastructure deficiencies.
However, since 2019, the Beitbridge RDC has managed to drive infrastructure growth in the last five years, building more schools, clinics, repairing damaged public infrastructure and procuring service vehicles.
In a speech read on his behalf by Engineer Latani Singo, acting chief executive, Mr Peter Ncube said the local authority had embarked on a number of projects since the advent of the devolution funds.
This was disclosed during Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Albert Nguluvhe’s stakeholders’ interactive meeting held in Beitbridge recently.
“The fund improved infrastructure development and service delivery to the district. Things started changing for the better around 2019 when the New Dispensation started consistently releasing funds to boost the local authorities’ capacity to meet service delivery obligations,” said Mr Ncube.
“So far, we have managed to build a new primary school in the Novhe area, Ward 10, which has two classroom blocks, two staff houses and is equipped with a borehole.
“We have also completed building a new clinic at Dumba area, which will open doors soon after the Ministry of Health and Child Care completes its inspection”.
Other completed projects include the construction of two staff houses at Tshabili Clinic, the conversion of a farmhouse in Mazunga into a clinic in Ward 14 resettlement area, repairs to classroom blocks which had been affected by climate-related disasters at Chabeta Primary School, Maphani Primary School and Tshituripasi Primary School.
Mr Ncube also mentioned that they managed to put a new roof at Shashe Clinic in Ward 8 and rehabilitated another classroom block at Mpande Primary School.
He said they had also purchased plant and equipment, including a front-end loader, council supervision vehicle, ICT-computers and software.
“We have pending projects which have already taken off through the support of devolution funds and these include the construction of Malibeng cattle sales, Sentinel and Dite roads rehabilitation, Zezani Clinic staff house repairs, the construction of a classroom block at Mthangamutshena which is now 80 percent complete and we have supplied building material to the construction of a classroom block at Tshaswingo primary school,” added Mr Ncube.
He said the local authority continues to implement the road rehabilitation project through funding from Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) and maintains 300km of rural road network annually since its inception.
For this year, Mr Ncube said they received ZiG1,7 million and that they are already working on roads in Beitbridge East, including the Tshaswingo to Lukange.
He pointed out that the local authority was having challenges with earth-moving equipment, considering that outsourcing had proved to be expensive, given their limited revenue inflows.
“In some instances, contractors prefer payments in dollars and hence we often get prices at inflated rates.
“Our appeal to the Minister (Nguluvhe) is for the building of our capacity in terms of procuring our own equipment to construct and maintain roads,” said the acting CEO.
“We are lobbying for the surfacing of three major roads in our area, which are Lutumba to Tshikwalakwala, Beitbridge to Nhwali and Jopembe to Nhwali roads.
“In addition, we need funds to build/repair Tshikwalakwala Bridge, which links Beitbridge and
Chiredzi districts, the Siyoka bridge connecting Makhado and Zezani area and Mutshilashokwe bridge construction”.
Mr Ncube said should more devolution funds be made available, they were planning to construct bridges to improve their road network.
In some areas, communities would be cut off from the town and other key facilities during the rainy season as a result of broken bridges.
He said they had started working on projects such as the building of Kayanse Primary School, the construction of accommodation for maternal health-related services at Mtetengwe Clinic in Ward 7 and building a classroom block at Mthangamutshena Secondary School with the support of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
“These projects are at different construction stages and we look forward to continued funding for such critical projects,” said Mr Ncube.
dyton mupawaenda