Zinara blames heavy taxes for bad roads

By Farayi Machamire

Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has admitted that the country’s roads are now a “national embarrassment”, but argued they could not do much as a huge chunk of their revenue was being gobbled by heavy taxes.

The Administration refused to shoulder the blame for the country’s derelict roads, contending that local authorities were not prioritising repairs.

“In 2016, we collected $173 million and we disbursed $122 million and that includes commitment on the Plumtree to Mutare road,” its chief executive, Nancy Masiyiwa-Chamisa, told Parliament’s Transport committee on Monday.

“Tied to the balance are obligations of repayment of the DBSA (Development Bank of Southern Africa) loan which is taking quite a huge chunk, we also have cost of revenue collection for our agencies, we also have administration costs,” she added.

“Since 2009, the tax that has been accessed from Zinara and Infralink adds up to about $113 million and if you look at our revenue of $195 million, that is a very significant figure . . . as of now we are sitting on a garnish of

$24 million for Zinara and $23 for Infralink, adding up to $47 million…we have been given a temporary relief by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa,” Masiyiwa-Chamisa said.

“Should we pay the $47 million, it is almost an equivalent to annual allocation to road authorities,” she said.

Zinara board chairperson Albert Mugabe also said:  “What drives us as Zinara is a safe and trafficable network, if we look at our capital city, it is an embarrassment to ourselves that as the leaders involved in maintenance, the road maintenance has fallen in such a state of disrepair . . . but we also have to use what we have so that we get what we want.”

The Zinara bosses said the road infrastructure was in a state of disrepair because municipalities were not prioritising repairs.

The road agency noted that “more than $8 million was collected” from parking fees in Harare, yet the city’s roads remained in a bad state.

“In Harare, there are 7 000 parking bays being charged at $1 an hour,” Mugabe told the committee .

“If we make a modest assumption that each parking bay is occupied for five hours a day, that means Harare is collecting $35 000 a day. Multiply that by a week of five days and further multiply that by 12 months, Harare is collecting no less than $8 million from parking.

“It is our humble submission that parking should accrue to Zinara, we are amenable that parking collected in Harare must be used on Harare roads to effect that.

“This $8 million be deposited into the Harare City Council account for the city’s roads but that Zinara be allowed to audit the financial and technical use of that money.

“We find ourselves in this situation where the city’s roads are an absolute disaster because there is currently a lack of qualitative job being done.” Daily News