CLOUDINE MATOLA
Treasury has released the funds meant for road rehabilitation for both the urban set up and highways, which has resulted in significant activities and developments in the first quarter of this year, it has been learnt.
The development was revealed by Dr Tinanshe Manzungu, the CEO of Zimbuild, a property development firm.
Manzungu is also the senior vice president of the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association.
Speaking to Business Times on the sidelines of the Institute of Architects of Zimbabwe conference, held in the capital Harare on Friday,Dr Manzungu said:”This year (2024), you will see that within the first quarter, a lot of activities started taking place.”
He added: “(This has been mainly) on roads in both the urban set up and the national highways. You talk of the Chirundu highway, you talk of also the Bindura highway, you talk of the Harare central business district, notwithstanding these other towns and cities. So you will see that as we move into the second quarter, already we are in the full gear of movement in terms of infrastructure development.”
Compared to prior first quarters, Dr. Manzungu said that Zimbabwe has never before seen such an extraordinary performance.
“You will see that the first quarter boom is something that has never happened before if we are looking into the history of this country. Government used to take time specifically the whole first quarter to seek approvals for the national budget and other arrangements before they start disbursing funds for infrastructure development. Normally, we would start seeing movements in the second quarter,” he said.
As Treasury disburses additional funds, Dr Manzungu said contractors were prepared for several large-scale projects scheduled for the second quarter.
“….There are projects that are lined up already according to plan. These are the projects that we expect now to see going forward in the second quarter according to government’s normal disbursement of infrastructure funding.
“So this is quite going to be something that is going to be well received within the construction industry. As contractors, we have already taken into task that we are ready to take up this task as we get into the second quarter of 2024,” Dr Manzungu said.
