Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE disbursement of devolution funds to the two Beitbridge local authorities has helped bridge the service delivery gap that had become a perennial headache in the district.
Before the implementation of the devolution concept, authorities at Beitbridge Rural District Council and Municipality were struggling to meet their mandates due to limited revenue streams.
Among other things, the two local authorities have managed to drive infrastructure growth in the last five years.
Beitbridge town clerk Mr Loud Ramakgapola said they were able to build a new primary school, buy a refuse compactor truck and earth-moving equipment, upgrade their ICT facilities and buy two service vehicles.
He said they also built five two-roomed houses to address the colonial problem of crowding in the Dulivhadzimu suburbs.
The council is targeting to build a set of 28 new two-roomed houses.
“We were able to implement several capital projects through the Government’s injection of funds under the Devolution concept,” he said.
“So far, we expect the new primary school (Makhado) in Khwalu 2 suburb to open for classes soon.
“In addition, we have started building a new clinic in the northern part of the town near White Lodge, where we have new suburbs coming up.
“We expect to complete this project as soon as we receive more funds from the Central Government.”
Mr Ramakgapola said the refuse compactor truck, the ICT facilities and the new service vehicle have helped them improve in areas where they had deficiencies.
He said they recently received a new grader they bought using devolution funds, which was critical in the town’s road construction and maintenance programmes.
The town clerk said in the long run, they intend to address issues of public lighting in the western suburbs to reduce crime, especially muggings.
“As we appreciate the programme, we intend to use more funds to build more schools to accommodate the town’s ever-growing population,” he added.
Zimpapers is reliably informed that the town needs four primary and two secondary schools.
Ideally, the council needs a primary school for every 5 000 people and one secondary school with three feeder primary schools.
The town has an estimated population of 100 000 with three secondary and six official primary schools.
Beitbridge RDC’s acting chief executive officer Mr Peter Ncube, said 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.
“So far, we have managed to build a new primary school in the Novhe area, ward 10, new clinic at Dumba area and completed other pending infrastructural development projects including the conversion of a farm house into a clinic in Mazunga resettlement area which is already open to the public,” said Mr Ncube.
“We used some of the funds to respond to climate-related disasters where clinics and schools had rooftops blown away by strong winds.
“We have restored normal services and in some instances we have built new classroom blocks in areas which had deficiencies.”
He said plans were also afoot to complete civil works at Whunga Clinic and to build more facilities to accommodate maternal health services at all the clinics under the RDC.
Mr Ncube said they were planning to use devolution funds to construct bridges to improve their road network.
Peter Tanyanyiwa