HARARE metropolitan’s state of the roads continues to deteriorate ever since takeover of the vehicle licensing portfolio by the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (Zinara), which has only managed to disburse ZWL$13 million this year for roads rehabilitation.
According to Harare City Council (HCC)’s yearly reviews, the municipality has only managed to construct a 10km road-stretch against a target of 540km.
At his State of the City Address, Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba said HCC’s roads division had largely remained underfunded.
“Under preventive maintenance, we had targeted 855km for 2019, but we only managed to construct 18km. Our contractors pulled out due to price variations and late payments, something which has contributed to the lack of meaningful progress in this sector.
“Harare has over 450 000 licensed vehicles and ifthe HCC was collecting revenue on its own, the roads situation would be different,” Gomba said.
He also added that the number of licensed vehicles was enough source of revenue if it was put to good use by the council.
Gomba added that since Zinara took over in 2009, council had collected the equivalent of just a year’s license collection.
