The Sunday Mail
Darlington Musarurwa recently in Victoria Falls
THE computerisation of the country’s tolling points has managed to plug the loopholes through which revenues that were ideally supposed to accrue to the Road Fund were being siphoned.
Currently, the country has 26 tollgates, all of which are computerised.
17 of the tolling points are jointly managed by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and the Southern Region Trading Company (SRTC), while the remainder are under the ambit of Intertoll — a special purpose vehicle that was formed out of Zinara’s partnership with Group Five of South Africa.
There are 11 toll plazas that are along the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway.
Nine are complete, while the remaining two are expected to be up and running by the end of next month.
It is believed that the country’s road fund could have been prejudiced of significant inflows by unscrupulous tolling officers.
Before the computerisation of the Skyline tollgate, which is located near the Boka Tobacco Auction Floors in Harare, revenue collections were between US$5 000 and US$7 000 per day, but after the system was put online, revenue collection jumped to US$18 000, raising the spectre of serious revenue leakages.
It is not only the tollgates that have been computerised, but also the management system of the 80 motorised graders that were purchased in July 2013 for the country’s rural district councils.
SRTC, which is responsible for managing the platform through which the equipment is monitored and audited, claims that the system has managed to improve the equipment’s efficiency 10-fold.
Last week, Zinara’s board chairman Mr Albert Mugabe told chief executive officers from 32 road funds from across Africa, who are currently in the country for the 13th Annual General Meeting of the African Road Funds Maintenance Association (ARMFA) being held in Victoria Falls, that computerisation is fundamental to road tolling.
“When things were hard in Zimbabwe, especially during the period when western countries imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, we have had to look inwards. We therefore had to use what we have to make what we need. What we need are safe, trafficable roads . . .
“But I must emphasise that computerisation is not an option; it is a prerequisite,” said Mr Mugabe.
SRTC indicated last week that its system was very efficient as it had only had a cumulative four hours downtime in the last three years.
In most African countries, tolling is still in its infancy, while in countries that have effected tolling, the system is still manual.
Road fund CEOs last week had the opportunity to tour SRTC call centre and visit the Norton toll plaza to get an appreciation of Zinara’s tolling model.
ARMFA was established in 2003 to provide a platform for road funds from across the continent to share experiences on the administration of road funds and their judicious application.
Its headquarters are presently in Yaounde, Cameroon.
However, the executive committee is working to make the association an affiliate of the African Union (AU), with a full-fledged secretariat at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Dr Obert Mpofu, urged ARMFA to leverage on Zimbabwe’s assumption of the chair of the continental body to speed up its affiliation.
“I hope you take this opportunity, especially when we are chair of the AU, to speed up the process of affiliation. And I will be at the forefront of leading that initiative.
“Allow me, therefore, to urge fellow African member states still outside of this organisation to consider joining in furtherance of the African agenda of developing and integrating our road network infrastructure,” he said.
President Robert Mugabe was elected head of the 54-nation AU at a two-day heads of state summit held at the organisation’s headquarters in January.
He succeeded Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Last year Zinara managed to meet its revenue collection target of US$200 million, but the funds are considered as insignificant to rehabilitate the country’s road infrastructure.
Most of the revenues are collected from road-user charges such as vehicle licensing, axle load charges, tollgates and the fuel levy.
Unlike most African countries that receive funding through donor funds, Zimbabwe sponsors its own road works.
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