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Forty-six-year- old entrepreneur Stanley Chasara in Hurungwe started operating a general dealer shop and farming business 15 years ago.
Like many other businesspersons operating in the country’s 59 rural districts and 1 200 wards, the poor state of rural roads has threatened to extinguish hopes of growing their businesses.
Most roads in Hurungwe Rural District were not usable eight years ago; buses stopped plying many routes while Chasara’s small truck always had breakdowns.
“I remember in 2004 when my truck, laden with farm produce from farmers in Kazangarare area, was stuck in the mud for over a week and the produce all perished. No one could come to our rescue due to the poor state of the road leading to our nearest town of Karoi,” said Mr Chasara.
“But around 2012 or 2013, a miracle happened and from nowhere, we started receiving news that Government had bought graders to maintain rural roads. I can tell you I am not an economist, but my experience in running retail and farming business in rural areas, the graders have transformed rural economies,” said Chasara.
In June 2013 Government commissioned 80 graders worth $16 million that the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) bought from China under the Road Authorities Recapitalisation Programme.
The machines were bought from Sany Corporation, a Chinese company that specialises in earth moving equipment and has earned a global reputation for supplying quality machines and a backup service that is beyond reproach.
The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset), the Government’s economic recovery blueprint since 2013, shows the country aims to rehabilitate at least 4 000 km of roads in the country’s eight rural provinces.
That entails covering 500km stretches of road in each province.
A local company, Univern Enterprises (Private) Limited and official Sany Corporation agent in Zimbabwe, supplied the 80 graders. The Harare-based company’s partnership with Zinara has delivered 103 000 kilometres of upgraded rural roads since 2013, more than 20-fold, using the motorised graders.
“I am pleased that we have exceeded Zim-Asset targets in grading, which was set at 4 000km in five years. With effect from January 1, 2018, ownership and maintenance of the graders has been transferred to the various authorities. It is our expectation that we will ensure optimum utilisation . . . so that the road network . . . is kept in trafficable state,” Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo told Parliament recently.
Minister Gumbo admitted the machines had clocked a record 300 000 hours of work since mid-2013, meaning an average six hours daily.
Univern’s bid, that included a fair “price and technical support” issues, saw it winning the tender, beating 16 other bidders. The firm provided management and maintenance contract of the graders to the rural district councils that ended in December last year. Rural district council officers say they prefer that Univern continues with the graders maintenance deal.
The motorised graders have performed very well in rural communities and have transformed rural lives as transporters can now move people and goods timely to and from markets.
Impressed by the manner the machines were managed in Zimbabwe, Malawi, which also bought 30 graders, sent a team of officials on a fact finding mission to see how Zinara managed the machines breakdown free.
Reports indicate that for the past five years, only three out of 80 graders had major breakdowns, but that these have been repaired.
Zimbabwe’s road network, according to statistics, is 80 percent rural, while major economic activities are mainly rural-based including agriculture and mining.
If you break the rural economy, you break the entire economy of Zimbabwe.
A grader typically has one long blade that sits between the vehicle’s front and rear axles. Graders with a second blade that sits in front of the front axle are also sometimes used. Any grader from any company, Caterpillar or Hyundai, can be mounted with a front blade depending on the intended use.
Graders are typically used for shaping, ditching, mixing, side-casting, levelling, crowning and creating inclined surfaces using either middle or front blade, whichever is suitable for the task.
Sany Corporation development manager for Southern Africa business region, Mr Beham Xu, said the firm delivered 86 graders and mining equipment to companies and institutions in Zimbabwe, adding nothing among them was a snow grader.
Even though Sany also manufactures snow graders, they have never sold any to Zimbabwe or to any African countries.
“The graders we sold to Zinara are suitable for grading rural roads. Sany has three series motor graders. We provide the very suitable motor grader for our customer’s projects,” he said in written responses from China last week.
Beitbridge Rural District Council (RDC) CEO, Mr Peter Ngamula Moyo, said repairing dust roads during rainy season was always a huge challenge for most rural authorities, but the Zinara graders had come in handy.
“We have one tipper truck, a lorry and a motorized grader that we received from Zinara. The machine is effective and very reliable. Vehicles by nature experience breakdowns, but with this grader we have been fortunate, no breakdowns at all. I think we got one of the best machines.
“Of course when we meet as a province, here and there you hear people who complain about breakdowns, but like I said these are machines, you repair when they breakdown,” he said.
He said the grader helped them to keep at least 1 000km of road network leading to the province’s economic hub intact, in the process economically transforming the lives of thousands of people in the district.
Mr Moyo said they would do well as a district if they received one bulldozer given that the area has major rivers such as Umzingwane, Bubi and Shashe whose crossing points at times need major works.
Zibagwe RDC in the Midlands’ CEO Farayi David Machaya, said the province had 1 197,5km rural road network, adding the two motorised graders helped them maintain the road network.
“The roads are in good shape especially during this rainy season but they need constant repairs. We need gravel dumpers because currently we have a tractor drawn dumper.
“We have two motorised graders including the one we received from Zinara. Both are working perfectly well. I do not understand when people in Harare say these graders do not work. In any case any grader can be mounted with a front blade that can also be used for scooping snow.”
He said the machines had been hired out for various jobs and the front blade has been handy in executing some of the tasks.
Zaka RDC CEO in Msvingo, Mr Patsirai David Majahura, said although their grader from Zinara had a case worm gear problem, that had since been repaired.
He said the area had sand soils that required them to repair the roads more frequently.
“We have one Zinara grader which cannot meet demand because of rainy weather. Even if it works 100 percent per year, still it cannot meet demand. The machine works and we have no problem at all. We, however, also need tippers, front-end loader, compactor and one more grader,” he said.
Although some CEOs could not be reached for a comment, some officials who could not be named for professional reasons said the graders were working well and delivering positive, tangible results.
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