HCC in $35 million deal with roads authority

In an exclusive interview, the council’s Environmental Management Committee Chairperson, Councillor Musarurwa Mutizwa, said council had entered a deal with the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority after the latter realised that it was under paying.

“According to vehicle licenses in Harare we should be getting $10m to $12m per year from them but they have been giving only $2m per year, hence the plan to give us $35,” he said.

“ZINARA came up with plan of giving us a loan of $35 million for equipment starting 2013. The procurement of the machinery and everything needed by HCC will be done by them at our direction,” added Mutizwa.

He said the funds from ZINARA were part of the sum collected on vehicle licenses and tolled roads that pass through Harare.

“So far we have received $5 million from ZINARA of which $3m is meant for road equipment such as dozers, excavators, tippers, rammers, stone and concrete mixtures and graders,” he said.

“About $2 million will be used to replace the mining plant at the Quarry located between Joshua Nkomo Airport Road and Seke Road,” added Mutizwa.

Mutizwa said HCC was losing millions of dollars yearly by hiring private road maintenance equipment.

“We have been running with very old equipment resulting in us hiring private players thereby, losing $2m per year, an equivalent to buying new machinery which can operate for over ten years without problems,” he said.

“We still have 100 years to mine at our quarry, which produces stones or granites used in making roads,” he added.

“It will take about six months to revamp the quarry and work will start in January. We hope that by mid-2013 we will have our own road maintenance department up and running. At the moment we are just filling pot holes to avoid more damage during rain-season,” added Mutizwa.

In his 2013 HCC budget statement last month, Finance Committee Chairperson, Clr Friday Muleya said: “Since the transfer of vehicle licensing to ZIMPOST, road maintenance programmes continue to suffer from the negative impact of this development. To date, ZINARA has disbursed a total amount of $2m against a conservative annual expectation of $10 million in year 2012.”