By Staff Reporter
Kwekwe City Council Town Clerk, Dr Lucia Mkandhla, has called on local companies to take an active role in rehabilitating the city’s deteriorating road infrastructure, saying corporate social responsibility (CSR) should extend beyond donations and sponsorships to include tangible contributions to public service delivery.
Speaking on Friday while addressing captains of industry during a National Developments Strategy1 (NDS1) stakeholder engagement meeting, Dr Mkandhla expressed concern over the damage caused by heavy-duty trucks and the lack of initiative by companies to repair the roads they use.
“Companies should chip in and partner with council on certain areas like road rehabilitation. Community social responsibility demands that sometimes companies should not just complain but take proactive action in road maintenance,” said Dr Mkandhla.
She noted that some companies frequently use haulage trucks that transport goods through the city, causing significant damage to roads that are later repaired at the ratepayers’ expense.
“Sometimes we rehabilitate roads but they are damaged by haulage trucks transporting several goods, but these companies cannot even take action to repair the damage they cause. These companies lack a sense of ownership of these roads. They believe they have no role to play in community development,” she said.
Dr Mkandhla challenged the private sector to shift its mindset and start viewing road rehabilitation as a shared responsibility.
“In other countries, companies take proactive action, but in Zimbabwe we are not yet at that level where we can say, ‘as a company, we are adopting this road as part of corporate social responsibility’,” she added.
In many parts of the world, especially in countries like the United States, India, and South Africa, road adoption programmes have become an effective way of involving the private sector in infrastructure development. Under such schemes, companies commit to maintaining or rehabilitating specific road sections in exchange for public recognition, signage, and often tax incentives.
These programmes not only ease the burden on municipalities but also foster a culture of corporate citizenship and community investment.
Kwekwe, a key industrial hub in the Midlands Province, has been battling with aging infrastructure, limited resources, and increased traffic from mining and manufacturing companies.
