The condition of Zimbabwe's roads has been declining due to insufficient maintenance and rehabilitation. Year on year, budget allocations have compared unfavourably with funding considered adequate to maintain highway networks and conduct modest construction work. Road infrastructure shortcomings have manifested themselves in the form of high vehicle operating costs and rampant potholes, leading to a decline in road safety and a deterioration of service levels for those who use roads to deliver goods or connect to international markets. In order to try and stop this vicious cycle of decline, the Government of Zimbabwe, on 8 August 2009, introduced a new policy of road-user charges, which involved the setting-up of 22 toll gates on the trunk road network. The overall objective was to raise revenue in order to close the funding gap, blamed for declining road quality. Although alternative methods of financing road maintenance have been debated for years, a generally accepted understanding is that road users should pay costs for road provisioning. This paper assesses the implementation of a road tolling system in Zimbabwe and describes matters relating to, inter alia, implementation strategy, initial performance outcomes and sustainability.

Cities in the developing world are growing both geographically and demographically. Thisgrowth has increased pressure on services, including the public transport systems used bythe majority of people. In the last two decades public transport provision has undergoneconsiderable changes. Concomitant to these changes there has been debate on the formof public transport to be operated. Such debate has been informal, general, and at timesacademic, and therefore not able to provide substantive understanding of the views of keystakeholders. Zimbabwe has had an explosion of informal transport activity in the formof minibuses, and decision makers appear to be in a policy dilemma because of a need tostrike a balance between maximising passenger welfare whilst protecting the livelihoods ofindigenous minibus operators and striving to build an efficient and environmentally soundurban transport system. Critical questions for policy dialogue in this conundrum include,inter alia: How do stakeholders perceive the current public transport system? How can publictransport be sustainably provided? This study seeks to answer these questions using a casestudy of Harare. A qualitative research approach blended with some quantitative aspects wasused. Initial steps involved the identification and clustering of key urban public passengertransport stakeholders, followed by structured and unstructured interviews. Although thereis lack of consensus on the form of public transport that the City of Harare should adopt, thereis a strong view that a mass transit system is the backbone of sustainable public transport.