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Beaven Dhliwayo Correspondent
There is a common joke that was once passed in Parliament that Zimbabwe acquired “snow graders” to rehabilitate the country’s rough roads. It was the very axiom for Africa’s corruption. Yet, these much-derided machines have done well to transform the state of roads in the countryside.

The graders have actually surpassed maintenance and rehabilitation targets of rural roads countrywide and are still operational, widening major highways linking cities and towns.

Last year, a fleet of 80 motorised graders which were being leased to councils were handed over to various local authorities by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara).

Agricon CEO Faijul Materia, who supplied the machines  said the accusations of “snow graders” were outrageous and the motorised graders have clocked more than 8 000 hours each and have graded more than 130 000km of rural roads network.

“This is absolutely lies and it is something that was fabricated by a certain Member of Parliament, who unfortunately has very little knowledge regarding the machines in question here. These machines were working when they were under our maintenance contract for over five years,” he said.

“He referred to them as snow graders because of a dozer blade on the side of the graders which is used to cut the road as it is going and he called them snow blades, which is inaccurate and incorrect. These particular machines have done 8 000 hours of usage and if they were not meant for the Zimbabwean terrain, how did they do such hours of grading.”

He said the rural district councils are re-engaging with them to start maintenance because they were happy with the performance of the graders.

The graders were procured from China’s Sany Company, which is a premium brand out of China, and Agricon said it still supply the brand and have also sold outside Government.

Materia added that members of their board and those of Zinara board travelled to China to ensure the quality of the machines was correct.

“This is definitely a smear campaign by competitors and people who have other motives in order to discredit one of the only successful projects that have ever happened in this country.

“I can say this is one of the projects where machines run continuously for five years and it is still our intention to work with the district council to keep those machines running until the end of their life,” he said.

Zinara board chair Michael Madanha said procurement of the second batch was regularised. “Conditions of the first batch of 40 graders as per contract were used at the same cost and was reported to be of better quality. The procurement process of the second batch of graders was regularised with procurement authorities and an administration fee paid to regularise situation,” he said, adding that the graders are now the property of municipalities and are still operational.

Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) chairperson Vimbai Nyemba weighed in saying the term snow graders was misleading.

“These were just graders.  The only issue is about the variation of quantity from 40 to 80.  The additional 40 were cleared through a variation that was not cleared by State Procurement Board as required under S26 of the repelled regulations,” she said.

Recently, The Herald visited Chinyika Village where one of the graders is operating to have a feel of its performance and asked villagers how the graders have improved their lives.

Charles Ziwande, who has been operating the grader since 2012 said the graders have been working very well, servicing the roads in Goromonzi District.

“The graders are still working exceptionally well since 2012. I personally did roads under Goromonzi Rural District which comprise Goromonzi, Rusike, Bromley, Acturus, Rusike, Juru, Dzvete, Domboshava, Ruwa and Chinyika,” he said.

“What the media is calling snow plough is actually a dozer blade or push blade and over the years it made my work easier as it helps in pushing objects and pick up dirt and any rocks that may be protruding above the surface.”

Marian Chikondera of Juru Growth Point could not hide her joy and said the grader has made life easier by removing large rocks which were making their life hard and now it’s easy to commute to and from the market place where she sells airtime and other wares.