THE rehabilitation of the country’s roads, including the Harare-Chirundu highway, is set to resume with equipment reportedly on site, Transport Minister Felix Mhona told Parliament Wednesday.
Mhona told MPs during a Question and Answer session that work had stalled on other roads, but the Harare-Chirundu highway and revamp of other roads would go ahead without glitches.
Zanu PF Hurungwe Central MP, Richard Ziki had asked the minister on how far the reconstruction of roads had gone considering that work had been temporarily suspended during the SADC Summit two weeks ago.
‘’Starting this week, our contractors will be on site, like the one he has referred to, the Harare-Chirundu Road, next week they will be on the roads.
‘’Yes, progress elsewhere was put to a halt, and we are indeed going to proceed with other roads like the one the Hon. Member has mentioned.
“Harare-Chirundu highway is a major road, it is en-route to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zambia.We have put this on our priority cards so that those roads can be constructed as quickly as possible,’’ Mhona said.
Mhona said five companies are going to move with speed for the targeted kilometers.
‘’However, Harare-Chirundu is not the only important road but we also have the road from Beit-Bridge to Victoria Falls. Our contractors will also be working on those roads, revamping the 700km peg.
‘’We are not going to be limited there but we are also looking at Kwekwe-Lupane-Nkayi Road, and the road that comes from Bulawayo to Nkayi is going to be constructed at the same time, the 154 km from Bulawayo to Nkayi.
‘’As Parliamentarians, we are the ones who give the ministry a vote allocation, so we are going to perform very well so that all our roads in the country are safe, added Mhona.
The minister assured the house that government will accelerate, now that there was a need alluding ‘’to with speed on the particular project which is a feeder road into other neighbouring countries.
The minister warned the contractors not to leave room for poor work as this would be taken seriously by government with penalties for would-be offenders.
‘’It is very true that the Second Republic is very different from the former, that people would do shoddy jobs and were paid but this time, if people do not do standard work, we pay only after we are satisfied that the job has been done.
‘’Do not be troubled if you find places where the road has not been constructed well. Section 298 talks about transparency and accountability. We go back to the people of Zimbabwe so that the money that they pump out does a good job.
‘’We blacklist for bad workmanship and if you are blacklisted, it means you will not get any contracts again. If you do a bad job, we ask you to do it again until we are satisfied and that is only when you get paid.
He said the government was working with the Committee on Transport and most of the time they were doing follow-ups and they update this House on the work being done.