Zinara, councils must spare us the drama

ROADS in Harare have turned into death traps, with potholes becoming a source of consternation for motorists. They are now a matter of life and death, especially along busy highways which feed into the city centre, where potholes have defaced most roads, owing to incessant rains.

Often, drivers are caught by surprise as their tyres plunge into a pothole or when a smooth ride turns bumpy as they cruise along city roads.

What is worrying is not the absence of resources for maintenance of the roads, but the impasse between the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and local authorities on who should be executing the onerous task.

Last year, Zinara stopped direct disbursements of road maintenance funds to local authorities, alleging that councils were either misappropriating the funds or diverting them elsewhere.

Zinara acting chief executive Engineer Moses Chigonyati said they have a budget of $52 million towards the resurfacing and patching of roads in Harare, which they will only pay directly to the contractors.

On the other hand, the City of Harare claims the money they are getting from Zinara is less than 20 percent of what they used to collect from selling vehicle licences before the job was taken over by Zinara, and as a result they are struggling to fix the roads.

The city officials argue that there has never been any misappropriation of funds.

While the two continue to haggle on the use of funds, the city continues to deteriorate and naturally motorists are bearing the brunt of the fall out. Perhaps it is time to look into the way road maintenance is being funded and probe if the city can afford to continue with the present approach.

The local authority could be hiding from scrutiny through deflection and maybe it is time for full monitored responsibility to handle road funds so they can prove their case.

Once entrusted with the maintenance of roads, the public expects local authorities to quickly move on and rehabilitate the roads, and dispel the notion that they are abusing funds.