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Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Kwekwe City Council, which was tasked by Government to construct a model bus terminus, is set to complete the second and last phase of construction within the next two months.

Kwekwe city is constructing a state-of-the-art terminus to be used by local authorities as a model for modern termini. In an interview, Kwekwe Mayor Councillor Matenda Madzoke said Government poured in a significant amount of money through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development .

“We are using council money to fund the project, but we also received a significant sum of money from Government towards the construction of the model terminus,” he said.

“We have not been able to complete the project within the time frame that we had indicated we would have finished. We have since written to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, indicating that the money we got was not enough to complete the terminus.” Clr Madzoke did not reveal the amount of money needed to complete the project.

“It is a significant amount of money, which, however, I do not know off hand We are under pressure from the Government to complete the project and the council has since written to Government seeking more funding,” he said.

Clr Madzoke said the terminus was divided into three sections – local commuter omnibuses, long distance buses and cross-border buses. Closed circuit television would be installed to monitor the running of the terminus. He said the system would help improve revenue collection while cutting down on corruption. Clr Madzoke said the local authority intended to turn the city’s old long-distance bus terminus in Amaveni suburb into a vocational training centre.

Amaveni long-distance bus terminus is now a white elephant, with buses and commuter omnibuses already using the new state-of-the-art terminus, which is being constructed in phases. Clr Madzoke said council was mobilising resources to turn the old terminus into “a useful training centre”.

“We have a lot of proposals that we have put forward in our bid to make something happen at our old long-distance bus terminus,” he said.