BY SILAS NKALA GOVERNMENT says it is prioritising the construction of Hwange Teachers’ College and Empumalanga West Housing units this year. This was revealed by Matabeleland North provincial development co-ordinator Sithandiwe Ncube last week during a provincial meeting with district local authorities. “Let’s look at what we might have omitted that was meant to be included in our list of priority projects. “However, we shouldn’t say because some of the projects have been included in the provincial development plan, we then abandon them. “We expect you to carry them out,” Ncube said. “We are going to take investment opportunities brochures to embassies in search of investors and these must be properly packaged to attract investors. “Funding is already there and there’s funding which we have to look for,” she said. Hwange Local Board chairman councillor Nqobile Ocean Mabhena said a number of infrastructural development projects had not been included on the list of high-impact projects. “We want expansion on other corresponding infrastructure. “We expect the town to grow in tandem with the expansion at Hwange Power Station, thus we also need to focus on upgrading our sewer plant and having one or two additional water reservoirs,” he said. Mabhena said the local authority was also looking forward to constructing a civic centre at its proposed central business district. “As a local authority, we also want to construct our own civic centre in partnership with Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC). “Initially it was supposed to be a clinic, but ZPC has indicated that it wants a stand for the construction of a hospital,” Mabhena said. The establishment of the civic centre was mooted about seven years ago but the local authority was struggling to attract investors to take up the project. Old Mutual had to commit to the project two years ago. The servicing of 2 145 Empumalanga West residential stands has since been handed over to government. The Empumalanga West project was initiated by council in 2014 as a low-cost housing scheme for low-income earners. Follow Silas on Twitter @silasnkala

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