Online Reporter
With just over two months to go before Maphisa Growth Point, in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province hosts the Independence Day celebration, preparations are intensifying.
The growth point will witness what will easily be its biggest surge in arrivals from across the country as citizens move to mark 46 years of freedom.
Tens of thousands will congregate there, with traffic set to start rising a week ahead of the event, peaking a day or two before April 18 and immediately after.
It would be a big, hectic moment for the district, which demands meticulous preparations for the event to be the success that all previous editions have been.
The Government is building a stadium, upgrading schools, refurbishing health facilities and rehabilitating roads and communication infrastructure and so on.
As noted, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime moment for Maphisa Growth Point, whose benefits will outlast the event.
Our people down there are already getting jobs as construction picks up, with many more to be created as the day approaches. The jobs are giving them a regular income, which is helping improve their livelihoods.
Businesses and households at and around Maphisa Growth Point will definitely rake in the cash, providing various items and services to the multitude that will camp there for the national Independence Day commemoration.
We urge them to be fully prepared for their biggest payday by building up their stock, hiring more staff, sprucing up their premises, and putting their systems ready for the increased business that comes with hosting big events.
The stadium, complete with terraces, a modern athletics track, and changing rooms, would host the main event, after which it would be one of the legacies of the 46th Independence anniversary at Maphisa Growth Point.
It will host sporting activities well into the future, and we hope that some national and international football stars and sprinters will be born there.
We cited the Minister of State for Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Albert Nguluvhe, yesterday, highlighting that the Government has hired more contractors to work on the Bulawayo-Kezi Road, set to be the busiest of all that lead to and from Maphisa.
That was a good move because we knew that road to be generally narrow, its edges chipping away.
Noting that, some of the work that the Government has sanctioned on that highway will include the complete reconstruction of its worst sections.
We are sure that the contractors will put that road in the right condition to handle the increased traffic we anticipate for this momentous national event.
derick.khumalo