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Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
Government will engage local authorities and the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) to come up with an acceptable way of allocating financial resources to enable councils to carry out road rehabili- tation.
Local authorities accuse Zinara of giving them meagre resources leading to the deplorable state of the road network in most towns and cities.
Most councils have called for a change in policy to enable local authorities to collect licence fees in order to fulfil their mandates, or alternatively for the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development to allocate financial resources in accordance with the number of vehicles registered in an area.
In an interview on Monday, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Cde Saviour Kasukuwere said he would summon mayors to get their side of the story.
“We have to look at it and have discussions with the city mayors around that matter by getting a positon from them. We will then see how best we can find a middle of the road approach between local authorities and Zinara,” he said.
Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni said there was a mismatch or misalignment of expectations in terms of the road funds.
“The average resident in any local authority is expected to be taking care of their road maintenance, but the fees have been going to the road authority and we have not seen the requisite support for road maintenance.
“The local authorities are quite justified revisiting that arrangement and saying surely why don’t we get the licensing fees to ourselves and apply it to the roads that are under our control?”
Last week, local authorities urged Zinara to release funds for road maintenance before the onset of the rains to allow them to clear drainage systems and patch potholes.
Most local authorities feel that since the takeover of vehicle licensing by Zinara in 2009, not much revenue has accrued to councils and there is no clear basis of allocation of vehicle licensing fees to council.
At one point, Zinara stopped direct disbursements of road maintenance funds to local authorities following allegations of abuse and misappropriation of the funds by some local authorities.
The Zimbabwe National Roads Act stipulates Zinara as the administrator of the roads fund and it took over the task from local authorities in 2009.
Online Reporter