Suburban
Suburban Reporter
THE City of Harare is pushing ahead with its recapatilisation programme after taking delivery of two new backhoe loaders this week to revive service delivery.
“Council has taken delivery of two backhoe loaders as part of its broader recapitalisation programme,” the city said in a notice.
Last week the municipality commissioned 22 trucks, a front end loader, an excavator, four tractors and 20 motorcycles to enhance service delivery.
“Mayor Jacob Mafume has commissioned 20 Nissan NP200 trucks, two Navara single cab trucks, one front end loader, one excavator, four tractors and 20 motorcycles at Town House. The vehicles and heavy machines will be used to enhance service delivery in the City,” the municipality announced last week.
The 20 Nissan NP200 and two single cab trucks will help improve the mobility of workers such as plumbers and other artisans who carry out operations as well as the municipal police and development control units who enforce by-laws.
However, the heavy machinery remains lower than the desired levels which means services such as refuse collection and clearing as well as maintenance of storm water drains will remain suppressed.
Harare has been facing financial challenges which have hamstrung its recapitalisation plan.
For the 2023 budget, the city proposed to allocate ZWL$41,6 billion for capital expenditure, up from the 2022 allocation of ZWL$10,3 billion.
In terms of heavy machinery and equipment, the City of Harare should ideally operate with 62 refuse compactors with an acceptable minimum availability of 30 trucks.
According to a report on the State of Harare Metropolitan Province covering January to August 2021, the city needs 13 skip trucks with an acceptable minimum availability of 10 but the municipality was having only three skip trucks in use on average as the other 10 were undergoing repairs.
The city must have two front end loaders to use in waste management with at least one expected to be available at all times but the city has bought just one while at the time the report was released the two front end loaders were grounded.
Harare must have an optimal number of five tipper trucks and it recently bought a number of new ones while the old ones were undergoing repairs.
