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Mildred Sithole Midlands Reporter
THE cash-strapped Gweru City Council, which has of late been relying on handouts, has received $500 000 from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) to upgrade its roads.

A recent study indicated that 75 percent of the city’s roads were in bad state and contractors were shunning council because of failure to pay for previous works.

Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe announced the fund allocation during a full council meeting last week.
“We received $500 000 from Zinara for maintenance of our roads which is the final disbursement for 2019.

“We have three graders and all of them are currently not working and there is the issue of fuel. Our graders have to queue for fuel like all other vehicles.

“We must appeal to Government to give us fuel subsidies and also have our own fuel station as the local governance so that there are no inconveniences,” Clr Makombe said.

He also conceded that the city’s road network was in bad shape and the grant would go a long way in addressing the persistent challenges.

“Generally, our road network has been very bad so we will ask the contractor to work on important roads. We are going to use the money which was given to us by Zinara,” said Clr Makombe.

The money however appeared to have divided the council as some councillors were pushing management to allocate the money to their wards to gain political mileage.

Clr Doubt Ncube suggested that roads from the Central Business District (CBD) to the suburbs be given priority.
“The road to Mkoba 16 all the way to Mkoba 17 is full of potholes. We need to hire a company to come and fix the roads,” said Clr Ncube.