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Mr Chitukutuku

Herald Reporter—
Zimbabwe National Roads Administration chief executive Mr Frank Chitukutuku has resigned under unclear circumstances, cutting short his contract as he will leave at the end of this year rather than in March 2015 when his contract was due to expire. His resignation comes after Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu voiced concern at how accountability was lacking at Zinara, especially on funds collected at tollgates.

A source said Mr Chitukutuku informed the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development of his intention to leave in December in writing, giving various reasons for his decision.

The source would not disclose all the reasons for his departure, but said one of them was that he wanted to “pursue personal business”.
“He gave notification that he will leave on December 31, 2014,” said the source.

“He will go on leave on 31 October pending departure on 31 December. His contract is supposed to expire on March 31, 2015. His reasons for departure are contained in his resignation letter.”

Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure Development Mr Munesu Munodawafa said yesterday that he would comment on the matter today after meeting Dr Mpofu.

Dr Mpofu could not be reached for comment as he was said to be out of the country.
Mr Chitukutuku said he needed clearance from Mr Munodawafa before he could speak.

Minister Mpofu recently placed Zinara under daily surveillance to monitor revenue collection to improve transparency.
This was after he had dissolved the Zinara board chaired by Mr Abdullah Kassim, as well as the boards of Air Zimbabwe, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, the Meteorological Services Department, Road Motor Services, CMED (Pvt) Ltd, the Vehicles Inspection Department, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and National Handling Services. Minister Mpofu directed that Zinara operations be directly linked to the ministry for better monitoring.

He said Zinara officials were “not accountable to anybody, they were not reporting to the ministry or the permanent secretary, so we were giving them guidelines on how they should operate”.

The public, legislators and local authorities have been complaining that Zinara was not properly disbursing funds for road maintenance despite collecting millions annually.

Mr Chitukutuku joined Zinara in 2005 as an auditor and was promoted to the position of human resources manager in 2006.
He was appointed chief executive officer in 2009.

Mr Chitukutuku is understood to have invested heavily in farming and he could be heading towards full-time private enterprise.