Council says it's not receiving enough money from Zinara to maintain roads

Harare City Council has said they are not receiving enough money from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) to maintain city roads.

Council spokesperson Michael Chideme made the remarks while speaking at a workshop organised by the Development Reality Institute (DRI) in Harare yesterday. Chideme said,

The argument that the local authorities have, Harare included, is that we should get back the responsibility of collecting vehicle licence fees, which forms the bulk of the money that used to be invested in the road network. The city is not getting the money from Zinara, they sit in their board meetings and decide how much can be given to Harare. Sometimes they make a budget, but it won’t be released at once; it comes in drips and drops. Sometimes they say they are releasing money for drain clearance, we then clear the drains and fail to attend to the potholes.

Chideme urged stakeholders to lobby so that councils collect licence fees for maintenance of roads.

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