adminIn particular, we are anxious at the snail’s pace at which work is moving along this highway between Plumtree and Bulawayo and between Bulawayo and Gweru, more specifically the stretch between Bulawayo and Shangani.
This is in spite of assurances given by Zinara and its partners that work would be in progress and that they had acquired state-of-the-art machinery which would make light work of the job.
We were actually told that a machine had been acquired in Germany and that it would rip off old tarmac, mix it with new tar and lay it back all in one day! But despite these assurances, nothing seems to be moving. Has the wonder machine broken down, we wonder?
On Thursday, the Minister of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural, Development Nicholas Goche came face to face with what is happening on our roads. We are glad he did and now knows what exactly is obtaining on the ground.
The minister expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of road rehabilitation of this highway.
Minister Goche said workers between Plumtree and Shangani were slow compared to workers on other parts of the 820km project.
In an interview with this publication during an assessment tour of the rehabilitation programme in Fairbridge along the Bulawayo-Harare highway, Minister Goche said he was not amused when he found workers of Infralink, the joint venture partner between Zinara and a South African firm, sitting and doing nothing at the site at about 3pm.
The workers were reluctant to explain to him why they were not working, saying they were not authorised to explain their operations. How cheeky!
“I am not happy. I thought there would be much progress but I found them working on the same area that they were working on about three weeks ago,” said Minister Goche.
“I do not know what the constraints are and the workers are refusing to explain. I will talk to their director, Mr Richard Evans, and find out what the problem is.
“We need to move faster. I need to see progress and people need to see growth and development. I am disappointed because this means that workers are being paid for sitting and doing nothing.
“The workers who are doing the road widening programme along the Harare-Ruwa highway are actually moving faster yet these people in Bulawayo are still doing rehabilitation at the same spot,” said Minister Goche.
The minister has every reason to be worried by the slow pace of work on this section of the road and we hope the message has reached those who are supposed to be doing the work. We expect him to read the riot act.
As we have said before, there is no doubt that our roads, most of which were constructed during the colonial era, need massive rehabilitation.
In fact in some cases, there is a need to completely overhaul the roads and build new ones.
There is therefore a need to move with speed to rehabilitate our roads. In fact, we see no reason why work continues to move at a snail’s pace when funds, public funds for that matter, have already been committed to the project after Government secured a line of credit from a South African bank.
Motorists pay licences and other road levies so that they drive on good roads.
Right now, Zinara is in the process of receiving millions of dollars from motorists through the renewal of vehicle licence discs but the same road users do not at the end of the day see a corresponding improvement in the conditions of the roads.
Motorists also pay toll fees at tollgates along the major highways. Sadly, the money is still being collected by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) which takes 10 percent before remitting it to Zinara. We hope this anomaly would be resolved soon so that Zinara directly collects all the money from tollgates and channel it towards roads rehabilitation.
We want to once again urge Zinara and its partners to move with speed in the rehabilitation of our roads. Motorists need to see progress on the roads.
Online Reporter