Zinara, DDF and devolution to fund rehabilitation of roads

GOVERNMENT will soon start injecting more funds towards road rehabilitation as the rainy season that had stalled works is coming to an end.

Most of the country's roads are in a bad state and have been worsened by the rains.

Roads such as Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Highway have sections that are pothole-filled making it difficult for motorists to drive through.

The situation is even worse in cities and towns as some municipalities have resorted to filling potholes with sand.

Government is implementing the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 and Treasury allocated $130 billion towards the programme this year. Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube told Chronicle yesterday that Government is aware of the dire state of the country's roads.

"Once rains have stopped and they seem to be slowing down now, we will pick up on that programming and start spending again resources in rehabilitating roads. We have to do that. Government has got resources for that. Money is never enough but we have resources to make a difference when it comes to rehabilitating these roads," he said.

Prof Ncube said funding for road rehabilitation will be sourced from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration, District Development Fund (DDF) and devolution funds.

He said Government requires both external funding and local resources to finance infrastructure development projects such as roads.

"But I'm pleased that this time around fiscal discipline has enabled us to be able to find resources to deploy from Government coffers. We want five percent of gross domestic product to be a Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). That will enable us to support economic growth, which means infrastructure growth that partly finances and supports gross domestic product," he said.

Prof Ncube said Government was in the process of engaging the private sector to adopt some commercially viable roads and develop them and recoup their resources in the long run.

"In terms of external resources, some of the roads that are commercially viable going forward, we want to concession some of these roads. We give someone a 25-year to 30-year concession where they spend their resources, revamping roads, upgrading roads and toll it and get toll fees from that road. One of the roads that we are tying loose ends in terms of the legal issues is the road from Harare to Kanyemba," said Prof Ncube.

Another investor has engaged Government to rehabilitate 120km Old Gwanda Road under a built, operate and transfer scheme and has US$150 million for the project. He said Government may consider asset recycling for some of the roads.

"Which means where Government has already spent money (on a road) it could re-concession that road literally by being paid by an investor the value of what we would have spent and so forth. We get paid as Government will use those resources and other infrastructure and the developer takes over and toll the road and collect toll fees. We are looking at that possibility. We can do it with roads and with airports as well," he said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development said Government was in the process of awarding tenders to fix the damaged roads.

"The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development would like to advise motorists that the incessant rains have left a number of roads with potholes and other surface defects. As a Ministry, we remain committed to redressing these defects to ensure your safety on our roads and increase the number of kilometres of road network in good condition," read the statement.

"Please note that the Ministry is in the process of procuring contractors to attend to these works. Your patience during this time would be greatly appreciated. Once again we would like to promise you that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development is at your service and any adverse condition you may be facing on our roads is just but temporary."

Meanwhile, Prof Ncube said the rebound of the country's agriculture is critical as it relieves the country from importing grain.

He said the funds are then channelled towards other sectors of the economy.

"We are pleased that agriculture seems to be on its way to performing well this year as it did last season.

We had a bumper harvest in wheat and we expect a similar situation this year. And this will go a long way in saving foreign currency. In other years, when we were short of grain we did import and that put a strain on us," he said.

"You know what happened in 2019 when we had that drought, it cost us quite a bit of resources as Government and as a country to import that grain. So, food self-sufficiency that occurs goes a long way in saving foreign currency. It is also a statement about our agriculture sector that our agriculture sector is back."

He said the country is achieving self-sufficiency in wheat, maize among other grains but more needs to be done in sunflower and soyabeans production.

Zimbabwe and Ethiopia are the only two African countries that achieved wheat sufficiency last year.