The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
SOME members of the Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe (Cifoz, Matabeleland region) are up in arms with the organisation after the national body excluded them from the list of companies to be considered for the Government’s national road rehabilitation fund.
Last Thursday, President Mnangagwa revealed that the government has set aside $33,6 billion for the Second Phase of the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2). Cabinet in February declared the country’s road network a state of disaster as most of the roads have become untrafficable following damage by heavy rains that were received across the country.
However, before the fund even bears fruits, in Bulawayo players in the road construction industry are already engrossed in infighting among themselves as they accuse their umbrella body of excluding them from those eligible to partake in the projects. It has been further alleged that those who are not members or not up to date in terms of their Cifoz membership subscriptions have also been barred from the programme.
Cifoz (Matabeleland Region) chairperson Mr Mkhululi Nyathi confirmed that there were some anomalies regarding those selected to be part of the Government programme, revealing that they were working with the secretariat to rectify the issue.
“Yes, we have received a complaint from a majority of our members over the list of those that are eligible to participate in this programme. We have since engaged the secretariat to see what can be done and we rectify this. What Government did is that they made a list of requirements for the companies that are eligible to participate, some of the companies that were excluded indeed did not meet the criteria but there are some that met the criteria which we have alerted the secretariat about,” said Mr Nyathi.
He said the major concern was that every company had to be given an equal chance to participate in the programme as long as they had the required resources and the track record to prove their capabilities.
“This is a national project and as players in the construction industry we also want to have a share in this so that we also support President Mnangagwa’s plea of addressing the problems within our roads. We however, also understand the need to have companies with the necessary expertise and equipment so that they do not do a substandard job, which will see government a few years down the line having to rehabilitate the same roads,” said Mr Nyathi.
An owner of a construction company, whose company was excluded, said they were surprised that some of them were told they were not members of Cifoz when they had been responsible for recruiting members into the organisation.
“What we ask for is a level playing field because some of us have all the requirements, equipment and expertise but for Cifoz to then strike us off that list we find it very unfair. Further, some of us have been busy recruiting and recommending members to Cifoz so for them claim we are not members, we find something is clearly amiss,” said the company owner who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In launching the second phase of the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme, President Mnangagwa emphasized the need to provide opportunities for broad-based empowerment of local private contractors and suppliers. The Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme Phase 2 is envisaged to create in excess of 20 000 jobs for local communities, including women and youth.
