HARARE: Harare City Council risks losing out on a $250 million loan facility for the rehabilitation of its road network if it continues to spurn an offer by the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara) to repair the roads in return for management of the city’s parking bays, Parliament has heard.
Zinara board chairman Albert Mugabe yesterday told members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government that the local authority had refused to hand over its vehicle parking business in return for a loan deal, which would see the city’s potholed roads resurfaced. Mugabe said the city fathers had refused to entertain the proposal.
“What we collect as Zinara is awfully short, and we have been busy trying to urge urban councils to participate in the rehabilitation of their roads. But it is painful that after negotiating for something which we believe is helpful, city fathers, for reasons better known to them, are shunning a chance to change the look of our roads,” Mugabe said.
“There is need for urban councils to also come on board because they are collecting money from parking fees which comes from the roads. We are saying, with the systems that we have developed over time, we can manage and account for the funds collected from street parking,” he said.
The Zinara boss was responding to Harare South MP Shadrek Mashayamombe (Zanu PF), who wanted to know what the authority was doing to improve urban roads.
“We had looked for an investor who was ready to inject into the city’s roads an initial $50 million, but because the city fathers do not want us to be involved, that money will not come. The $50 million was just trail money and he was prepared to inject up to $200 million for road rehabilitation,” Mugabe said
Committee chairperson Irene Zindi quizzed Mugabe on why Zinara was targeting Harare in its negotiations while leaving out other major cities with equally bad roads.
“We have engaged all local authorities including Bulawayo with the proposal and they are coming on board. I mentioned Harare because they are refusing the offer,” he said. He said Zinara had mechanisms to trace people who would have parked in any city, but not paid unlike local authorities.
Mugabe also revealed that Zinara was leading the campaign for the introduction of urban tollgates as a way of increasing revenue for roads rehabilitation. But he said the amount that would be paid at urban tollgates could be less than $0,20 through the electronic system.
