Zinara short-changes councils

Loc3Municipal Reporter
Local authorities yesterday criticised Zinara for giving them meagre resources for road maintenance amid indications some council received as little as US$17 000 for the first quarter against requirements of over US$1 million.Other councils were still to get their allocations.

Local authorities are hiring equipment such as graders, tippers and other earth moving equipment from private companies at exorbitant fees of between US$250 and US$300 per hour.

Zinara collects licence fees from 575 000 vehicles registered in its database and in 2012, it had collected over US$45 million from toll-gates fees.

Epworth Local Board secretary Mr Kizito Muhomba said they were allocated US$17 000 against a requirement of between US$100 000 to US$150 000.

“Obviously, this money is not enough, Zinara should have consulted us and asked for our requirements,” he said.
“They just called us asking for our account number.”

Rusape town secretary Mr Joshua Maligwa said they were allocated US$18 800 which he described as “a drop in an ocean”.

“We had a running programme of resealing our major roads,” he said. “We were given US$4,5 million last year and there is need for US$700 000 to finish the exercise, instead we were given US$18 000 which we believe is for road maintenance which in any case is not sufficient. We are requesting Zinara to release US$700 000 to complete the project. We have communicated with them and we are still to get communication save for the US$18 800. We were only phoned to open a Zinara account and that was that.”

Kadoma town clerk Mr Malvin Dondo said they received US$23 000 from Zinara against a requirement of US$93 000.

“We have challenges exposed by the rains and that figure is not enough. It can only be used maybe for purchasing fuel and tar,” he said.
Kariba Municipality town clerk Mr Webster Tembo said his town was still to receive an allocation from Zinara.

“We require at least US$1 million considering that we expect heavy equipment to be moving to the extension of Kariba South Power Station by Zimbabwe Power Company,” he said.

“We also have a lot of erosion taking place and gullies have developed as a result of heavy rains.”

Gwanda Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo said vehicle licensing should revert to local authorities as they were not getting enough from Zinara.

“We got US$22 000, but in 2011 we got US$44 000 and we do not know why they reduced the allocation.”

Kusile Rural District Council chief executive Mr Christopher Chuma said they had not received anything save for fuel they were given for their grader. Masvingo town clerk Mr Adolf Gusha said council last year did not get anything from Zinara and this year only got US$20 000.

Zinara head of administration and human resources Mr Precious Murove referred questions to the authority’s chief executive Mr Frank Chitukutuku who was not reachable.

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