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Most of the rural feeder roads are not accessible due to neglect.
This comes after Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, also implored the local authorities to commit enough money for road maintenance ahead of the polls expected before June 29.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a US$300 000 pothole patching machine at Machipisa Shopping Centre in Harare last Thursday, Zinara chief executive Mr Frank Chitukutuku said the graders would be distributed to the respective councils this month.
He said another road patching machine was expected to be delivered to Bulawayo soon.
Mr Chitukutuku said most of the rural roads were inaccessible during the just ended referendum “delaying the dispatch of voting material and the acquittal of voting results.”
Mr Chitukutuku said Zinara was concentrating on capacitating local authorities after realising that financial disbursements to the same were used to hire either expensive road equipment, pay salaries or go towards recurrent expenditure.
Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development Minister Nicholas Goche, said some councils were failing to access Zinara funds and assistance because they could not account for earlier disbursements.
Commending the graders, Minister Goche said Government intended to minimise the hiring of expensive plant and equipment.
“A number of graders for all rural district councils are in transit. We are very excited to be doing this work from funds from Zinara,” he said.
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Zinara is using the levies it collects from road users to buy the equipment. These include fuel levy, transit fees, vehicle licences and overload fees.
Minister Chombo who received the pothole machine on behalf of Harare City, said failure by the local authority to put the equipment to good use would result in “heads rolling”.
He said had councils not resorted to hiring plant and equipment, they would have been able to buy their own pieces of equipment. However, he understood the difficult conditions under which most local authorities operated.
He said for urban centres, most industries had closed down hence they were not paying rates and levies.
Minister Chombo said unemployment had also contributed to the failure by residents to pay their bills.
He thanked Minister Goche whose ministry oversees the Zinara operations for availing the various pieces of equipment to councils.
Said Minister Chombo; “In the sphere of roads, may I take this opportunity to remind councils that they need to take all necessary measures to ensure total access to all areas of their jurisdiction.
“This is critical given that we are approaching a general election and we need to ensure that all polling stations are accessible.”
Minister Chombo said his ministry was working with Zinara to “mobilise funding for the flood damaged roads”.
Repairing damaged roads would ensure farmers were able to take their produce to markets.
Minister Chombo said while Government appreciated “veritable efforts” that local authorities continued to make in terms of service delivery, he was dismayed that a number of centres experienced water borne diseases.
He said budgets for local authorities for 2013 were approved, implying that all councils were now charging the approved Government rates for their services and goods.
“The onus is now on the various service users to pay up in order to provide the revenue for continued and improved provision of services,” he said.
Online Reporter