The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Municipal Reporter
THE rehabilitation of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street in Bulawayo is engulfed in confusion, amid allegations that the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara)-contracted Group Five is not committing to resealing the parking bays along the road.
A tour of the road revealed that the company had completed the resurfacing of the road, which is part of the Plumtree-Mutare Road rehabilitation project but had left out the parking bays, both centre and side parking areas.
The company has further continued to put the road markings, a possible pointer that they had completed their part of the project.
Confirming the recent developments, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, said they were in the process of engaging Zinara to find out whether they were coming back or not.
“Everyone knows that Joshua Mqabuko Street is a national road and is part of the Plumtree-Mutare road rehabilitation project hence its rehabilitation was being handled by Zinara, which is why Group Five was busy resurfacing it over a month ago.
“However, we are surprised that instead of completing the entire project they have now started painting the road markings. We are now not sure what will happen with the parking bays that still remain not resurfaced. As it stands, despite the positive move to surface it, the road is now more of an eyesore because of the parking bays,” said Eng Dube.
In an interview with Sunday News on Friday, Zinara board chairman Mr Albert Mugabe said the problem was that the initial agreement with Group Five had not included the rehabilitation of roads within urban centres, hence the confusion on the inclusion of the parking bays.
“The problem I guess is that this is something we overlooked . . . the initial agreement did not include rehabilitating the roads passing through the urban centres.
“What I will definitely do now is that I will have to look into the matter with my officials so as to understand the fine print of the agreement and where there are loopholes we look into it,” said Mr Mugabe.
According to impeccable council sources, countless efforts to engage officials from either Zinara or Group Five had proven fruitless, with workers having finished painting road markings over a month ago.
“There is now confusion on what happens from here because that is a national road and it is the responsibility of Government through Zinara. As council we thus cannot be seen rushing to service a road that is not our responsibility.
“If there is any disagreement of some sort, as council we are clean. It is only between Zinara and the contractor. While the parking bays are under the city’s jurisdiction they are still part of that road,” said the source.
The rehabilitation of the 820 kilometre Plumtree-Mutare highway began in 2012, with the project being carried out by Infralink, a joint venture between Zinara and Group Five International of South Africa using a $206 million loan secured from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Zinara has 70 percent shareholding in the Infralink joint venture while Group Five International owns 30 percent.
The road rehabilitation project also includes the construction of toll plazas.
The project has created jobs for scores of people in the communities where upgrading was being done with several local firms subcontracted for various services.
Among the contracted companies were Madzimbabwe (surface preparations in Bulawayo, Gweru Kadoma and Chegutu), JR Goddard — (Gweru North Toll Plazas, installation of signs and painting and repairing bridge parapet and head walls), Traffic Solutions — (road line markings), Auto Solutions – (road line markings) and Le Nash/Ultimate Solutions (Harare to Shangani Road Signs).
The road from Plumtree covers Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Kadoma, Harare and Mutare.
Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe said the proposed taking over of the management of parking space from local authorities was not aimed at taking away councils’ sources of revenue but simply to ensure that these funds were channelled towards the rehabilitation of the road infrastructure within these areas.
“What we aim to do is just to greatly enhance collection of revenue from parking space, which is the money that will be used to rehabilitate the road infrastructure within these local authorities.
“We are not saying that the city is no longer responsible for their parking management or these funds but we want to ensure that these funds are re-invested,” said Mr Mugabe.
Recent reports indicate that Zinara is angling to take over control of vehicle parking lots and roadside advertising rights from municipalities to increase its revenue base and channel more resources towards rehabilitation of urban roads.
