Zimbabwe: Harare's Roads Patched With Soil As City Council Fails to Procure Tar for Over a Year

CITY of Harare (CoH) has been without tar for over a year, with its workers resorting to using soil and rubble to patch roads in the capital--another sign of deteriorating basic service delivery.

CoH has been struggling to maintain road networks in residential areas, with blame being apportioned to the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) for disbursing insufficient funds to the local authority.

The majority of roads in Harare are riddled with potholes, with council, on numerous occasions, spotted using soil and rubble to give a semblance of road maintenance.

Recently, during a full council meeting at the Town House, it emerged that CoH has not managed to buy tar, a key component in road construction.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume attributed this to the local authority's garnished accounts, before criticising Town House officials for failing to acquire basic supplies.

"Right now, I have messages from every government office in town. When they say the road is bad, people are going to pour dust. Everywhere, dust is being poured. We have money from City Parking and ZINARA that is being garnished in our bank accounts without buying tar.

"Look at the embarrassment--the whole town is dusty. This is because we are patching potholes using dust," said Mafume.

CoH receives remittances from its subsidiary, City Parking, and from ZINARA, which are supposed to be channelled towards road maintenance.

The city's procurement department has blamed the slow approval of purchases by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ).

Harare Councillor Denford Ngadziore accused officials of dishonesty, stating that they face no hurdles when purchasing vehicles and other luxury perks.

"The challenge at the city council is that there is a cartel or a system that has to be broken. If we do not do that, we will not succeed.

"The management at one time bought themselves vehicles without any challenges. The challenge is, if we do not break that [system], we will remain in one place," said Ngadziore.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.