HARARE – Efforts by MDC President and Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to spearhead the resuscitation of the country’s economy have helped the Ministry of Public Works to complete most of its projects countrywide.
In an interview with The Changing Times in Harare this week, Public Works Minister and MDC Women’s Assembly chairperson Theresa Makone said Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC secretary general and Finance Minister, Tendai Biti had worked hard in securing funding for her ministry under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).
“When the MDC formed the inclusive government, hospitals such as Harare Referral Hospital had ground to a halt. Equipment in the children’s ward, main theatre and mortuary had broken down,” she said.
In March, Prime Minister Tsvangirai tasked Makone, who is also Harare North MP, to provide the Prime Minister’s Office with the infrastructural needs of all government hospitals, schools and other government offices across the country. This was after Prime Minister Tsvangirai had expressed shock during his visit to the 1 200-bed Harare General Hospital, which had deteriorated to such grave levels that it was turning away critically ill patients after failing to raise US$1.5 million needed for rehabilitation.
“The ministry has since finished refurbishing Harare Hospital after it underwent a major rehabilitation. Gas lines have been put in place and all the wards have been reopened,” she said.
She said the ministry was now working on rehabilitating Mpilo General Hospital in Bulawayo under the PSIP. The role of the Public Works ministry is to offer accommodation to all government ministries and parastatals and supply infrastructure to schools and hospitals. Under the PSIP, the ministry is undertaking 550 developmental projects, which among other issues include building hospitals, schools and government offices across the country. The projects, which need at least US$100 million, are at different levels of completion.
However, Minister Makone said most of the projects were being hampered by lack of money and the brain drain that had seen most of the technicians and architects in the ministry looking for greener pastures across the country. Turning to her ministry’s 100 day plan that all government ministries were assigned by the Prime Minister to carry out, Makone said it had not been an easy assignment for her ministry. “It was not easy for us as when I came to this ministry, government infrastructure across the country had collapsed to unprecedented levels due to lack of funds.
“This was also affecting staff morale among the civil servants as they were working under environments that had no running water, electricity and infrastructure that had been vandalised,” she said. “However, infrastructural development has improved since the formation of the inclusive government and staff morale has also improved considerably,” she said.
The ministry has been promised at US$30 million in the 2010 national budget. Minister Makone was also working on a project to build a new parliament building as the current one could not accommodate both members of the House of Assembly and the Senate. “The building was constructed to accommodate less than 100 MPs but now we have over 210 MPs in the House Assembly and over 60 Senators. So there is congestion, which is unacceptable,” she said.
She said the Public Works ministry was also gearing for the Soccer World Cup to be played in South Africa in 2010 and as a result the ministry would complete the refurbishing of the giant National Sports stadium on 31 December 2009.The ministry has also asked the Rainbow Tourism Group to uplift the five star Rainbow Towers hotel ahead of the World Cup. The hotel is owned by the government.
