Gweru, private partners to refurbish city roads

By Lovemore Zigara

Gweru City Council says it would be partnering with local corporates in rehabilitating the city’s damaged road network.

The local authority is in financial dire straits and has been failing to rehabilitate its road network save for patching potholes using gravel.

Gweru needs at least $27 million to rehabilitate its road network.

The Mayor, Councillor Charles Chikozho said council intends to partner institutions such as the Midlands State University (MSU), Unki Mine and Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) among others in public private partnerships arrangement.

“We intend to engage with companies and institutions that ply council’s roads frequently so that we come up with a public private partnership arrangement,” he said.

Clr Chikozho said the local authority was collecting an average of $1,3 million a month against a wage bill of about $1,2 million, which has made it difficult for the local authority to channel resources to service delivery.

Some of the city’s roads have outlived their lifespan hence the need to reconstruct most of the major roads.

In 2015 council acquired a granite mining claim to extract granite to be used to fill potholes in the city but the project has failed to take off due to funding challenges. The Chronicle