By Lovemore Masunungure
Senior Reporter
The government is continuing its road infrastructural development across the country, with ZINARA expected to start rolling out support to rural district councils starting with Gokwe this week, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Hon. Felix Tapiwa Mhona, made the announcement when he toured road rehabilitation projects in the Midlands and Mashonaland West yesterday.
The announcement was made yesterday when the Minister, flanked by the ZINARA Board Chairman, Dr. George Manyaya addressed the media at Nembudziya, where this year’s 2025 Independence celebrations are set to be held.
“We are happy that we have a listening President, our iconic leader, Dr. Emerson Mnangagwa. Through his wisdom, Zinara is now operating efficiently and will soon roll out support programs to purchase equipment for all the country’s Rural District Councils and road agencies like RIDA.
“The program will start this coming week, beginning here, with plans to spread it across the country. The RDCs will identify two pieces of equipment they would like to have purchased, and these will be paid for by ZINARA. The onus is now on the Gokwe RDC to quickly complete the procurement processes, and ZINARA is ready,” said Hon. Mhona.
Zinara Board Chairman, Dr. George Manyaya, confirmed that Zinara is indeed ready to provide funding for the purchase of equipment by road authorities.
“This year, we are disbursing about Z$11.6 billion, which has been approved by the Government. We ask all 93 road authorities to present their equipment needs to us so that we can pay for them, and they will not need to hire equipment for road development. Gokwe will be the first council to benefit next week,” said Dr Manyaya.
Meanwhile, it was a hive of activity along all the major roads leading to Nembudziya and Mutora, as several road construction companies contracted to rehabilitate roads in and around Gokwe were busy on their sections.
Hon. Flora Bhuka, the MP for Nembudziya, also spoke to vhayeya.com and expressed her excitement that President Cde Dr. Emmerson Mnangagwa had chosen Nembudziya for this year’s Independence celebrations.
“I would like to thank the President for bringing the national Independence celebrations to Nembudziya, which is in Gokwe District. It has never happened before, and we also want to express our excitement that today the Minister of Transport, Hon. Mhona, came, and our council and RIDA will now have equipment to improve our roads.
“We now call upon the people of Gokwe and Nembudziya to come in numbers to meet our President, Cde Dr. Emmerson Mnangagwa, on the 18th of April and thank him for all the good work he is doing in developing this country,” she said.
Hon. Minister Mhona toured the roads with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Eng. Joy P. Makumbe, Director of Roads Construction, Engineer Kangara, and ZINARA officials including Chairman George Manyaya, CEO Nkosi Ncube, and several other officials from the Ministry and ZINARA.
