Victoria Falls highway rehabilitation project injects over 300 jobs
THE ongoing Bulawayo – Victoria Falls Road revamp has so far reportedly created over 300 direct jobs for locals, empowered women and created a train of other Corporate Social Responsibility by–products.
The rehabilitation exercise is an ongoing project to upgrade the 435km highway, which is being undertaken by eight contractors working on 51km sections.
Apart from revamping the country’s major tourism transit corridor, the contractors have created a lasting impression after co-opting locals to partake jobs alongside a raft of pro-poor initiatives for communities living adjacent to the road.
Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com on the sidelines of the week’s long Transport and Infrastructure Development Ministry’s organized media tour which ended Friday, the contractors shared various figures on the locals who have benefitted through job creation.
Syvern Construction Ltd project manager, Arnold Mutungwazi revealed that a substantial number of locals were given first preference on jobs.
“On this project we are employing a total of 144 workers with 75% of the staff completed being made up of locals .We also have a substantial number of female employees within the staff complement. Apart from the jobs we have also constructed a good detour road which passes through the community, and we will hand it over to them for local use after completion of the project,” he said.
Masimba Construction project manager, Blessing Nhau said out of the 74 staff complement workforce on their stretch, 50% of those employed were locals with a another 25% being women.
“We are not just concentrating on the core business of constructing the road but also investing immensely towards people centered projects by drilling boreholes and so far we have done two which will forever be in the community’s ownership even after the completion of the project. The site office which we are operating from will be donated for conversion and use as a Maintenance Unit to the Transport Ministry,” he said.
Fossil Contractors head of operations, Kudakwashe Maguta said the company adhered to a strict policy of targeting locals during its recruitment exercise and underscored that 30% of the staff complement was made of women.
“We have also patched up the bad potholes on those sections we haven’t begun to extensively work on in a bid to ease the smooth flow of traffic along the highway, “he added.
Tensor Systems engineer, Gerald Mutume revealed that 20 out of the 49 total staff complement were locals.
Considering the number of companies operating on the highway indications are that more than 300 jobs have been created with a huge positive downstream impact of the employees contribution in supporting businesses and services within the community. _*NewZimbabwe*_
