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Herald Correspondent

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona has scooped the strategy, innovation and leadership excellence award which was conferred on him by the Zimbabwe Institute of Strategic Thinking (ZIST), in recognition of his efforts in implementing President Mnangagwa’s vision to modernise infrastructure.

Minister Mhona was honoured last Friday at a colourful ceremony in Harare.

Mr Allowance Sango, the ministry’s strategic policy planning and monitoring and evaluation director received the award on behalf of Minister Mhona.

Zimbabwe is refreshing most of its key infrastructure such as airports, border posts, major highways and dams, in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and Vision 2030, which seeks to create an upper middle income economy.

Some of the flagship projects being implemented under Minister Mhona’s watchful eye include the modernisation of the Beitbridge Border Post, upgrading of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport,  refurbishment of the Harare-Beitbridge Highway and several projects under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2.

Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) chief executive Mr Nkosinathi Ncube also bagged the strategic and leadership excellence award.

The organisation is a parastatal under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.

Since his appointment, Mr Ncube has made several interventions that have transformed Zinara into a reputable corporate following years of bad governance that were flagged by the Grant Thornton forensic audit in 2018.

Under the leadership of Mr Ncube, Zinara has for the first time resolved to publish all the funds it has disbursed to the road authorities.

“We took a deliberate decision as an organisation to publish these disbursements because these are public funds and we should not hide anything,” said Mr Ncube.

“We are public entity and as such we believe that we should be accountable to the public.”

Mr Ncube hailed the award conferred to Minister Mhona, saying under his stewardship, Zinara had contributed meaningfully to national development.

“I am excited that our Minister has also been honoured by ZIST,” he said. “This is not a personal award for him, but a national recognition of the good work that he is doing in the Second Republic under the able leadership of President Mnangagwa.

“Like what the President always say, ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’, our Minister is making sure that no one and no place is left behind in terms of development.”

Mr Ncube said Zinara was computerising its systems to ensure it enhances its revenue collection capacity.

“We have flighted a tender for e-tolling and this is one of the key projects that we are focusing on as an organisation,” he said. “Our thrust is to move away from manual transactions which are usually prone to leakages.

“If we increase our collection capacity, this will also translate to increased disbursements to our road authorities.”