The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
BULAWAYO residents have commended the Government for the continued resolve to complete a number of major projects in the city.
This comes in the backdrop of the Government last week announcing that the rehabilitation of one the city’s major roads, Siyephambili Drive, had been completed and now awaits commissioning.
The road was rehabilitated and resealed under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2) facility after the Government in February declared the country’s road network a state of disaster as most of them had become untrafficable following damage by heavy rains that were received across the country.
In Bulawayo, 65 major roads are being rehabilitated under the government funded facility at an estimated cost of $625 million. Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura) chair Mr Winos Dube said it was impressive that the Government had seen it fit to take a lead role in rehabilitating the road infrastructure in the country.
He said it was their hope that the Government would go a step further and attend to more roads in the city as the road infrastructure had been allowed to decay for a long period of time.
“The fact that Siyephambili Drive is now set to be re-commissioned is testament to the commitment the Government has towards this facility which should surely be applauded, our wish as residents is actually that if they could do more and increase the scope of the project.
What we have always insisted on is that internationally the best road infrastructure promotes development and attracts investors. The state which our roads were now in was never going to attract any investors,” said Mr Dube.
He said the local authority should now take a cue from the Government and also direct resources towards the rehabilitation of those roads that did not fall under the ERRP2.
“The local authority should in fact take this ERRP2 facility as a relief that will allow them to also look at other roads because naturally some of the roads that are being rehabilitated were meant to be done by them, now they have the leeway of taking the facility further,” said Mr Dube.
Meanwhile, the Bura chairperson also commended the local authority on its new housing development strategy that it embarked on at the beginning of the year which has seen the servicing of over 500 stands under the scheme in less than six months.
Previously, the local authority was working with a pre-sale concept which however, gave them headaches with some developers abandoning their sites without completion, a situation that has seen more than 3 000 stands that were being developed by private developers left uncompleted with the local authority forced to take legal action to resolve the impasse.
Under the new scheme BCC works with developers with their own funds, with three developers being awarded — in the pilot programme — stands in Emganwini and Cowdray Park.
Mr Dube said the pilot project showed that with close monitoring there was always going to be progress.
He said the city had gone for a long time without any housing development being completed hence the 500 stands that were now to go to the market would go a long way in easing the accommodation problems in the city.
“Previously I think there was reluctance by the local authority to follow-up on some of these housing developments which is why they have a number which to date remain unfinished.
However, this new concept has shown everyone that with close monitoring there is always going to be progress, the local authority should now be vigilant and closely monitor these projects so that more stands can be availed,” said Mr Dube.
Sunday News last week visited some of the housing development sites in Emganwaini — one being embarked on by Natwecraft Investments and the other by TCI international where works were putting final touches to the sites awaiting a council inspection team to visit the sites for final inspection.
“What we are doing now is stone pitching where we want to protect the roads and the proposed housing stands from weather elements like rain otherwise we have completed the major works like roads, sewer and water reticulation, we are just awaiting the local authority to conduct final inspections,” said one of the workers at the site.
