COMPLETION OF SHEFFIELD ROAD A NEW DAWN

MBABANE – Even though the Mbabane Municipal Council needs at least E500 million per year for its capital projects, including road infrastructure, the completion and opening of Sheffield Road has been marked as a new dawn.

The road’s initial costs stood at E6 million but due to delays and other costs, it spiralled to E14 million.
The project was completed two months behind schedule due to the delays in the relocation of services like water pipes, telecommunication and power lines, and the usually heavy rains in the summer of 2013.

This was revealed by Mayor of Mbabane Benito Jones during the official opening of the road yesterday, which was attended by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza, Hhohho Regional Administrator Prince Tsekedi, the director of ED Simelane and Associates, Director of Roots Construction Reuben Msibi, Members of Parliament and the CEO of the Municipal Council of Mbabane Gideon Mhlongo, among others.

The mayor said they were mindful of the deteriorated state of most of the city’s roads and assured that council was exploring every avenue to improve all the roads in a cost effective manner.

“However, council is faced with a major challenge of how to raise the funds. Council requires at least E500 million a year towards the capital improvement programme. This is because we presently depend on in-house staff to do most of the routine operations and property rates for 90 per cent of our budget. The current statistics reveal that the city has slightly over 52 per cent of property owners who pay their dues on time,” Jones said. He mentioned that the current state of the roads was a result of a combination of factors.

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