Harare - Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the country’s largest mobile network operator, has embarked on a $3 million road rehabilitation project ...
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Harare - Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the country’s largest mobile network operator, has embarked on a $3 million road rehabilitation project in partnership with local rural communities, which will create up to 1 000 jobs.
Econet chief executive officer, Douglas Mboweni, said the project was meant to repair the company’s access roads leading to its base station sites, and would create jobs for rural communities falling under the firm’s network coverage.
“It’s basically an opportunity for us to give back to the communities we serve,” said Mboweni.
“Rather than hire contractors from the big cities and towns — whose turnaround time is often quicker — we thought it would be beneficial to the rural communities if we hired local labour from among the communities to do the work,” he said.
“Rather than hire contractors from the big cities and towns — whose turnaround time is often quicker — we thought it would be beneficial to the rural communities if we hired local labour from among the communities to do the work,” he said.
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| Roads Urgently Need Repairs |
“We believe, from a sustainability point of view, in involving the local people in the work we do in their communities.” said Mboweni, whose organisation uses surplus power from its base station sites to keep vital drugs, vaccines and medicines refrigerated for use in rural clinics.
“By involving the locals, we believe they will be better stewards of the resources and investments in their localities going forward” Mboweni said.
“By involving the locals, we believe they will be better stewards of the resources and investments in their localities going forward” Mboweni said.
The company’s technical director, Kezito Makuni, said project teams were already on the ground in four provinces, where preliminary work had begun.
“We already have teams on the ground in Mashonaland Central, Masvingo Province, Manicaland and Matebeleland South provinces where they have already surveyed a total of 43 roads targeted for rehabilitation,” Makuni said.
“We hope to cover a lot of ground before the rains slow us down. It is indeed in many ways a race against time for the project teams,” said Makuni, who is also in charge of the 3G upgrade Econet is implementing on all its sites countrywide.
Makuni said the project targets rehabilitating over 100 roads in the ten provinces of Zimbabwe upon completion.
Zimbabwe’s road network is in an advanced state of disrepair after years of neglect and underfunding. Government has recently embarked on a $100 million road rehabilitation project following last season’s heavy rains which compounded the damage. - Fingaz
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