ZINARA prioritises road rehabilitation in promoting Vision 2030: Transport Minister

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Hon. Felix. T. Mhona, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development has reiterated the Government’s prioritization of road rehabilitation as a key economic enabler towards the realization of Vision 2030.

The Minister revealed this on the occasion of the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) at the Grant Hyatt Hotel in Harare on 25 November 2024.

“Our Government, led by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa, has prioritised road rehabilitation as a key economic enabler towards the realization of Vision 2030. Pursuant to this objective, the extended Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP 2) continues to inspire the expeditious rehabilitation of roads.

“The over-arching guiding principle is that the ZINARA Board should continue to provide strategic guidance to management to ensure that it endures as a sustainable and viable Road Fund from which resources are disbursed to road authorities for them to maintain our roads,” Minister Mhona said.

He applauded the ZINARA Board and Management’s unrelenting efforts to comply with corporate governance principles at ZINARA and voluntary subjection to oversight, monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms by the Ministry, Auditor General, relevant Parliamentary Portfolio Committees, and the Corporate Governance Unit among other watchdogs, as an eloquent testimony of the milestones being achieved by ZINARA.

In his address, Dr. George Manyaya, the Board Chairman of ZINARA, said the 2024 Annual General Meeting is no ordinary meeting for two major reasons.

“This is the first annual general meeting that ZINARA is conducting timely since 2019. In 2019, ZINARA was 4 years behind. But today, 25 November 2024 marks an important date is ZINARA is now regular.

“The second reason why this is not an ordinary occasion is that this is the first time that, as ZINARA, we are presenting our annual financial performance in the context of a clean unqualified audit opinion. This is a key milestone in our orgainisation which serves as a testament to an organization that is maturing in both financial prudence and operational excellence,” Dr. Manyaya said.

During the year under review, ZINARA made immense progress in clearing the backlog of issues raised by the Auditor General, as well as by the Portfolio Committee on Transport and Public Accounts Committee. It has also taken concerted steps to comply with all relevant statutes relating to Public Entities.

“We also took steps towards enhancement of the delivery of our mandate, thereby closing the year with most of our strategic targets being met and some exceeded. The infrastructure sector, particularly national roads, has been the government’s biggest focus area for the past few years. The increased impetus for accelerating infrastructure development opened vast opportunities for local construction players, particularly those involved in road construction.

“ZINARA is a key player in this country’s road-related infrastructure ecosystem. It gives me immense pleasure to share with you that despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, the Road Fund has shown resilient performance and has continued to grow with its strong execution capabilities and prudent working capital management. We remain committed to ensuring we deliver on our part as far as the attainment of national aspirations is concerned. With the results presented today, we are glad to say we have made significant progress towards the achievement of our objectives under NDS1. We remain aligned with the national development agenda and remain committed to delivering on our core mandate,” he added.

Mr. Nkosinathi Ncube, the CEO of ZINARA said the institution is looking forward to raising revenue to enable it to pay the road authorities in the country.

“We are working to guarantee the road authorities that they’ve got a working road fund so in ZINARA, we have made sure that you can go to any road authority, and they will tell you that they’ve got a working road fund. We will then discuss or argue over the quantum, the amount that the fund gives you.

“But our objective is, is to make sure that all road authorities across the country can come to a table and say they’ll get money from ZINARA. And that, obviously, is something that we’ve done with the headcount that we have. If you look at the headcount that we have, we’ve got 1124 employees. These are direct employees from ZINARA,” Mr. Ncube said.