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Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
REDCLIFF Municipality recently acquired a grader and a backhoe loader as it seeks to improve service delivery.
The backhoe loader was purchased using funds from council coffers while the grader was part of a land deal with Livetouch Investment.
The company which manufactures building equipment acquired a 20-hectare piece of land from Redcliff Municipality and in exchange, they are purchasing vehicles as well as equipment for the local authority.
Since 2021 when the deal was penned, Redcliff has received service vehicles, a refuse compactor, a fully equipped ambulance, a fire tender and a grader.
Acting Town Clerk Mr Nyararai Gomba said Redcliff was facing cashflow challenges and could not afford to purchase the equipment using ratepayers’ money.
“As you are aware, Redcliff is a product of Ziscosteel and its closure affected revenue collections. Almost 65 percent of our billing is from Ziscosteel and we have been struggling with cash inflows. We, therefore, decided to use the land to purchase the equipment that we so need to improve service delivery,” he said.
Mr Gomba said the equipment will go a long way in improving service delivery for the local authority.
“The equipment has had a high impact on service delivery. Most of the time we relied on Kwekwe city for equipment like ambulances and fire tenders but now we are complementing each other with Kwekwe. In fact, we have one of the biggest fire tenders which carries 10 000 litres of water at one go,” he said.
He said the backhoe loader could not be included in the Livetouch deal.
“We had to purchase it since it was a need. We are currently servicing about 250 stands and we need to do trenching for laying sewer and water pipes hence we had to sacrifice and purchase the backhoe loader,” he said.
Livetouch Public Relations Officer, Mr George Makonese said:
“We still have a balance and we will sit down with Redcliff to map out how best we can clear the balance. But to date, we have supplied everything that was part of the deal.”
Mr Makonese said all of the equipment was sourced outside the country.
Livetouch Investments manufactures cement, tiles, bricks, furniture and supplies quarry.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter