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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge Town Council is scouting for investors to develop key infrastructure and finance major capital projects under the Public Private Partnerships basis in a new thrust to transform the border town into a modern urban settlement.

The town’s acting secretary Mr Sathulani Moyo on Friday said lack of capital was hampering efforts to speedily upgrade Beitbridge into a modern city. He said Beitbridge Town lacked capacity to develop on its own, hence, the need to partner private entities with the requisite financial muscle.

Mr Moyo said his council wanted Beitbridge to grow into a modern city, leveraging on its vast potential by virtue of being the busiest inland port of entry into the southern Africa hinterland.

“We are seeking partnerships to finance the implementation of various projects, which include construction of new primary school to accommodate the town’s ever growing population, shopping malls in existing and new suburbs, building new libraries equipped with modern ICT facilities,” he said.

“Other initiatives in the pipeline include development of a new residential area, road surfacing and building of a modern polyclinic.’’ Mr Moyo said Beitbridge Town Council had already signed Memoranda of Understanding with several land developers to service thousands of new residential stands in the border town.

He said a lot of work still needed to be done to upgrade the town’s water works and ensure reliable supplies in the fast growing town. Investigations have revealed that Beitbridge has limited storage facilities to keep increased water supplies expected to come from the recently commissioned water treatment plant in the border town.

The new plant, that was commissioned by Government, has a pumping capacity of 4 000 mega litres of water per hour. Beitbridge town requires at least 15 000 cubic metres of water daily and the anticipated population boom in the town will put a further strain on the existing water pumping infrastructure.