BINGA South legislator Fanuel Cumanzala recently took government to task and demanded a time-line on when it will fix public roads in his constituency.
The MP accused government of neglecting roads in his constituency since independence in 1980.
Speaking in Parliament recently, Cumanzala said Binga remained cut off from national markets, adding that the district had been neglected in terms of infrastructural development for decades.
Hence, he wants to know when exactly government will attend to the dilapidated roads in Binga.
Transport and Infrastructural Development deputy minister Joshua Sacco could not give a definitive time-line.
Instead, he said the ministry had a routine maintenance schedule, which included grading, pothole patching, bush cutting and drainage clearance.
“However, in terms of time-lines, the periodic maintenance operations are subject to availability of resources. Cross-Dete proposed loan facility is under consideration by Treasury,” Sacco said.
He said negotiations were underway to finalise term sheets to reconstruct Karoi to Binga road and ultimately to Cross Dete.
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Most public roads countrywide are in bad shape, save for those leading to top government officials’ homes and farms.
Of late, government has developed a worrisome tendency of only fixing roads to be used by members of the First Family.
Recently, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa wanted to visit Makumbi Mission Hospital in Domboshava, only then did the contractor resume work along Domboshava Road, particularly around the Chogugudza area.
Similar shoddy work has been replicated on several public roads, leaving motorists wondering if the contractors are being monitored and held accountable.
We urge government to carry out due diligence on contractors.
Unless the excuse is that they are paid in the local currency and the amounts go down when they access the greenback on black market hence they purchase mediocre materials for use in the operations.
Why is it that small-time contractors are the ones that usually do shoddy work, whereas big competitors do a better job with similar resources.
In the event that Treasury finally funds the rehabilitation of roads in areas such as Binga, government should check the portfolios of the contractors and see if they capable of carrying out the task at hand.
We cannot have rogue contractors continually getting tenders and doing substandard work at the expense of the taxpayers.
As we speak, the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway is in a bad state.
We hope the contractor will do a fantastic job as they rehabilitate the road.
Communities in Binga cannot afford to be shortchanged in the event that government finally remembers to fix their roads.
The country’s roads have long suffered from neglect, hence they cannot afford to be clumsily rehabilitated in the name of economically empowering local contractors.
