‘Hired equipment not sustainable’: Bulilima RDC

BULILIMA Rural District Council (RDC) chief executive officer, Mr Billiat Mlauzi, says plans are underway to procure a grader in the first quarter of this year as reliance on hired equipment to repair roads is not sustainable.

All roads under the local authority are dusty with no single tarred stretch, which makes it critical for the council to have its road equipment.

In a recent interview at his offices, Mr Mlauzi said using private equipment was more costly and inconvenient for the council.

“At the moment we don’t have a grader because the one we have had been down for some time. We are forced to contract private players when attending to the roads,” he said.

“Going to tender has its challenges compared to having our equipment. We have resolved that during the first quarter of 2024, we will prioritise the procurement of a grader to enable us to attend to our roads.

“This will help us improve the state of our roads because, with our equipment, we will do more roads and improve on service delivery in general.”

Mr Mlauzi urged the Government to expedite the release of devolution funds to help the council complete some of the projects it is undertaking.

He said the local authority has partnered with the community on many projects such as the building of clinics and schools.

“We have achieved several projects using our devolution allocations to build clinics and schools. The major challenge when it comes to devolution is the timeous disbursement of the funds,” he said.

“This affects the plans we would have laid down in terms of attending to the projects. If they delay or you don’t get all the allocation, it stalls projects.”

Last year, three clinics and two schools were commissioned in Bulilima RDC with devolutions funds supporting the community initiatives.

The commissioned clinics are Tjemahale, Mbimba and Malalume while the schools are Nyele Primary and Zombatha Secondary.

Mr Mlauzi said the council was also working closely with the diaspora community who have become key development partners.

“We are now equipping the clinics and have received good support from our local legislator (Cde Dingumuzi Phuti) towards this,” he said.

“Besides the schools and clinics, we also constructed new offices for our council and Nyele community hall.”

Mr Mlauzi said the new councillors have settled in well after last year’s elections and that focus now was directed at driving service delivery.-@themkhust