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Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
TRADITIONAL leaders in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province have high hopes that the construction of Old Gwanda Road will lead to the birth of a thriving mini-town in the area while opening up job opportunities for the villagers.
Those who are set to be displaced by the process are equally excited after being promised that they will get homesteads built for them. They will also get first preference in jobs when the main construction works start.
Zwane Enterprises (Private) Limited would upgrade and construct the 120 kilometres of Old Gwanda Road from Bulawayo, through Matobo to Gwanda at an expected total of US$110 million under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement.
The road reduces the distance between Bulawayo and Gwanda Town by six kilometres, compared to the existing Bulawayo to Gwanda via Esigodini and Mbalabala.
The construction, which will incorporate a shopping mall, health centres and fire and emergency centres is expected to begin this August and take six months to complete.
In an interview with Sunday News, the village head of Ntunjambili Village, Mr Webster Sibanda said after plans for the road had been laid out for them, the dream of a development of a mini-town suddenly seemed closer to reality.
Zwane Enterprises has set aside US$40 million for road furniture covering shopping malls at Bagcwele Shopping Centre just after Four Winds suburb in Bulawayo and Gwanda end.
Bagcwele Shopping Mall is expected to have a road port, service station, Zwane Enterprise offices, agro market and a truck inn.
The road is also expected to have two toll gates, one at Ntunjambili whose construction theme will use Matobo Hills while the second one will be at Vubachikwe in Gwanda District, whose construction will depict the mining areas of Gwanda.
“The main thrust is to construct a development corridor that stretches from Bulawayo coming down the road. The objective is to make this area a mini-town and you will notice that a lot of people are constructing beautiful homes here. There’s a university that will be built at Matopo Mission and a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed on the construction of dormitories for students,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said they have been assured that the 43 families affected would be secured.
“We were told that houses within a 70m radius of the road would have to be removed and we would have to help finding them space to settle. We were happy because they wanted our buy-in for the whole process and they kept us informed throughout, even when they did their feasibility study after getting Government approval. They also assured us that they would not start building the road until they had constructed houses for the people affected.
“We also expressed concerns about our livestock because it tends to wander onto the road a lot. They responded that they would put up a fence to prevent cattle from straying onto the road but they needed people to agree to that arguing that if they put up a fence without their buy-in, they will eventually remove it. So, the livestock will cross the road only at one particular place,” he said.
Village head for Lahlamkhonto Village, Mr Alifias Khanye, said the road would make villagers’ isolation from the outside world a thing of the past.
“Due to the current state of our roads, people are always fixing their cars and operators do not favour our area. We are therefore excited and we have hope that this will be a thing of the past once the road gets fixed. At the moment, it is a bit difficult because people know that their cars will not survive long if they use this road,” he said.
Another village head, Mr Pilate Ncube, of Tshonaphansi Village said while villagers were excited, they were eager to see how the issue of graves that are in the construction zone would be dealt with.
“Of course, we are embracing all the development that is taking place but we also want to have more clarity about those that are dead. Those who are resting will need to be relocated accordingly and we are trying to find out how that will be done. When a person is moved from their resting place, we believe the Government has to be involved. The sooner we know how that process will unfold, the better because we believe that the dead belong to the Government and we cannot touch them without its approval,” he said.
Ms Nonkanyezi Sibanda, a villager at one of the 43 homesteads that will be affected, said they were excited at the employment opportunities they have been promised as they were told they would be first in line for jobs when construction began.
She said she was anxious to see the process start as it would help remove a lot of uncertainty in their lives.
“We were informed that if your home was on the way, it would be pulled down and in its place, you would have a three-roomed house built for you. In addition to that, they will build a hut and a toilet. We are to be moved a little further away from the road because they will not be giving us land to relocate to.
“The most exciting part for villagers was that they told us that those affected would be the first choice when it comes to employment. That is something that we are waiting eagerly for but as of now, we would like the work to begin so as to remove the anxiety in our lives. As it is, I want to expand my old kitchen but I cannot do that because if construction start soon, it would be a futile exercise,” she said.
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