adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Government has been challenged to urgently upgrade communication facilities in Beitbridge district where the majority of people are still relying on mobile telecommunication services from Botswana and South Africa. Beitbridge Senator Cde Tambudzani Mohadi said in a recent interview that it was disheartening to note that many of the 170 000 people in Beitbridge district still lacked access to local telecommunication services.
She said failure to upgrade telecommunication services in Beitbridge by Government was hampering development, mainly among rural communities in the district. She said the development was also affecting monitoring of Government programmes.
“The state of affairs here is deplorable, people are facing communication challenges even in cases of emergency because they rely on foreign mobile telecommunication services,’’ said Senator Mohadi.
“Vandalism of fixed telephone lines has also contributed to the depletion of communication infrastructure. Fixed telephones used to connect business centres in the remote parts of Beitbridge with the rest of the world.
“As the local leadership, we have persistently approached local companies such as NetOne and Econet for them to expand the network coverage, but nothing has materialised.” Senator Mohadi appealed to Government through the Ministry of Information Communication Technology to speedily deal with the nagging communication challenges in Beitbridge.
She said communities living along Zimbabwe’s border with Botswana and South Africa were worst affected by lack of access to communication infrastructure, forcing them to rely on services from the two neighbouring countries.
“It was also worrying that communities living along the border were being forced to climb on tree or mountain tops to access mobile phone network signal, 37 years after the country attained independence,” she said.
Monitoring of Government programmes is also a nightmare for political leaders owing to lack of communication facilities, she said.
“It has become apparent that some communities here are virtually cut off from the rest of the country in terms of communication facilities,” said Senator Mohadi. “The situation here is appalling and we cannot continue to fold our hands as a Government.”
Senator Mohadi appealed to the Rural Electrification Agency to expand electrification in remote parts of Beitbridge to attract modern facilities in the area.
She said most primary health facilities and schools, together with business centres in the district, needed to be electrified for them to offer reliable and efficient service to villagers.
Online Reporter