Zinara announced last week that it intended to increase toll fees on the country’s major roads, once it completed construction work on what it deemed “state-of-the-art toll plazas”. The body justified the increase by saying the new structures, to be erected at a cost of US$1 million each, made it sub–economic to charge US$1 for motorists passing through the gates.
While Zinara should be applauded for finally deciding to get rid of the rudimentary tollgate structures on the highways, it should be warned that upgrading them alone cannot be justification enough to extort more money from long-suffering motorists.
Recently the authority caused an uproar when it introduced a new licensing system without giving motorists adequate time to buy the new discs.
Now after simply making cosmetic changes to the tollgate structures, Zinara will expect motorists to cough up more. What Zinara fails to appreciate is that when motorists pay tollgate fees, they expect to see tangible improvements on the roads and not to read stories about how the funds have been abused or stolen.
The motorists have also been dismayed to observe that since they started paying toll fees, the roads have gone from bad to worse with no maintenance work being undertaken.
Zinara early this year allocated a paltry US$33 million for road maintenance works, a drop in the ocean as US$2 billion is required annually.
This meant that very little, if any upgrading, was done on the country’s bad roads, leaving motorists to contend with potholes that cause substantial damage to their vehicles. Sadly, some perished in accidents blamed on the poor state of the roads.
The way forward would be for the roads to be upgraded first before Zinara contemplates raising toll fees. Though Treasury has not helped Zinara achieve this goal, regarding motorists as the source of all funding exposes the state body’s propensity for daylight robbery.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Instead of milking motorists, the body should go the public-private partnership route to finance the construction of better roads.
