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Herald Reporter
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza has said road construction is top on Government’s development priority and CMED should make sure that equipment lying idle in its Harare workshops is repaired and deployed to provinces for road maintenance.

Minister Matiza was speaking after touring the CMED Workington and Chikurubi heavy equipment workshops in Harare yesterday in the company of CMED general manager Mr Davsion Mhaka,

He was shown progress on the repair of equipment worth millions of dollars largely donated by Japan, that is lying idle.

The equipment included caterpillar graders, tippers, excavators, bitumen distributors and tractors.

Government ordered the repair of the equipment, a move which has seen CMED recruiting more apprentices for training at the two workshops.

Minister Matiza yesterday ordered the reopening of the Chikurubi workshop, stressing that it was key to the refurbishment of road equipment.

“The Chikurubi workshop has not been working for a long time and as Government we are prioritising road maintenance as a key economic enabler, so all the equipment here should be repaired and deployed to provinces,” he said.

“This workshop should be opened and all the equipment here should be urgently repaired and deployed to provinces and local authorities for road maintenance. The Department of Roads in our ministry is going to concentrate on construction, while CMED will focus on ensuring that all the equipment is well serviced.

“Our President Cde E.D. Mnangagwa has enunciated a vision that we should transform our economy to an upper middle income status by 2030 and that is the national vision we are following to ensure that we improve the lives of our people.

“In this regard, a good road network is critical and that is why we are going to every part of the country to ensure that the road network is improved. Our target as a ministry is to make sure that by the time we reach 2030, we will have a world class road network in Zimbabwe.”

Minister Matiza said the country should be a transport hub and a gateway to the entire Sadc region, but that can only be achievede with a sound road network that connects Zimbabwe with the region.

He inspected a vehicle tracking system developed by the Harare Institute of Technology installed at CMED headquarters.

The software is designed to curtail abuse of Government vehicles and monitor fuel consumption.

The system is already in use and is being used to manage the new ZUPCO fleet and has already brought commendable results.