By Joyce Mukucha
As the year winds down, the Member of the House of Assembly for Norton Constituency Honourable Temba Mliswa expressed his excitement as his constituency substantial developmental initiatives.
One of the notable developments in Norton is the resuscitation of Lucas Battery Company which resumed the production after so many years of not operating. In a constituency update, Mliswa said it was a boundless improvement to have a firm coming back to life in the nation’s current macro-economic milieu.
“It’s a great thing to have a company coming to life in the country’s current macro-economic environment. This past week as Norton we managed to have famed battery manufacturer Lucas Batteries begin the production of batteries after a long period of non-production,” he said.
The affirmative change, he indicated, follows previous initiatives which he made to source for investors and assist the company management to bring the firm back to life. Lucas Batteries is now producing 650 and 622 type batteries.
The electrification of Norton Ward 5 also marks an additional expansion which Mliswa describes as enormous improvement in as much as development of the community was concerned.
Ward 5 residents have managed to beat the deadline given to them by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to acquire the needed armoured cables. Therefore this week the cables were installed and now electricity is now running through the first line with more expected to be connected soon.
The electrification of the area was a fulfilment of the electoral pledge which Mliswa gave and he emphasised that it granted him great honour to see the realisation of what has been promised.
After so much campaigning for a progressive and modern water reticulation system, Mliswa pointed out that he was also contented about the water plant agreement that recently happened which characterises another Norton developmental initiative.
“I was glad to hear that Norton Town Council signed a Partnership Agreement with Hydromart (contractor) for the construction of a 200ML water treatment plant. According to the Council Statement, “the whole agreement is about securing the completion of the development of a water treatment plant (started in 2007 and aborted because of lack of funds).
“The first project was being funded by Government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe” and this one has since been approved and enabled by the Government through the Ministry of Finance (Joint Ventures Unit) and the Ministry of Local Government.
“Council has said Hydromart will be on site after 12 weeks during which time they will be mobilising for resources and the construction of the 1st phase of the plant will be completed in 18months,” said Mliswa.
He explained that this was a remarkable achievement, progressive and in line with the vision that he have for Norton. However, he alluded that caution needed to be fore stated at this early stage of signing agreements to ensure that failure will not be encountered at the implementation stage.
“Though I’m not privy to the full information about the company or the agreement I will be digging deep to ascertain that a people friendly initiative is in place so that we don’t give a company without capacity this contracts.
“As the legislator for Norton I’m entitled to understand who the company are and what they have done before so that we, as Norton, don’t suffer the side-effects of speculative businessman with no capacity gambling with people’s lives. I hope this project will be different and its agenda will be realised for Norton to progress,” he said.
