BULAWAYO City fathers are fuming after companies that were contracted by the government to rehabilitate roads in the country’s second largest city abandoned their projects midway after their contracts were cancelled.
This was revealed in the local authority’s city’s engineering department report dated February 1, which shows that a total of 13 city pothole-laden roads had been left unattended to motorists’ inconvenience.
“Under the (Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme) ERRP; in line with the provision of statutory instrument 47 of 2021, the ministry of Transport was instructed to take over some roads from the city of Bulawayo.
“The takeover means that the ministry will clearly define the scope of works, undertake the procurement process and implement the works. A letter received dated 27 April 2021, stated that the ministry shall be responsible for all pavement and surface water drainage works on the taken over roads.
“However, the roads are now in bad shape and require urgent attention. The roads are now impassable, littered with potholes, leading to a decline in road safety and high vehicle operating costs,” reads the report that was signed by acting director of engineering services, Sikhumbuzo Ncube.
While, the report did not state names of the companies that were awarded the contracts, some of the roads that have been abandoned include, Masiyephambili, Old Khami, Khami , Intemba , Mqabuko , Matopos , Luveve roads and Nketha Drive, among others.
The engineering director also indicated that further engagement had shown that the contracted companies in question failed to do the task forcing the government to consider cancelling the contracts.
“The (BCC engineering) department engaged the ministry’s provincial roads engineer who stated that the contracts for rehabilitating the state roads were awarded to contractors sometime last year but due to lack of progress on the ground, they are now in the process of cancelling the contracts.”
As a result, the local authority has since resolved to temporarily take over the rehabilitation process for the sake of motorists.
“Given the above and in the interest of the motoring public, the department moved in on the above roads and gravel patched these roads using natural decomposed gravel as an interim measure to keep these roads trafficable,” the report noted. Contacted for comment yesterday, Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni had no kind words for the central government.
“We have always said this before, the government gave contracts to their Harare boys and now they failed to even repair a single road. We are now forced to use our little resources from ratepayers’ money to deal with our roads, yet thousands of dollars were released and awarded to their cronies. At the end it’s us the people of Bulawayo who continue suffering,” Mguni told Daily News.
This comes as most roads in the city have, of late, been rendered impassable due to the heavy rains currently being experienced in many parts of the country.
