adminIn an interview on Thursday, Minister Mohadi said Mapungubwe was officially declared a border post in 2006 following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to set up the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conversation Area (TFCA).
Greater Mapungubwe is a vast wildlife sanctuary jointly shared by Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana.
The three countries’ Ministers of Tourism signed the document in October 2006 at the confluence of Shashe and Limpopo Rivers on the Botswana side.
“We are really worried about the delays in the construction of infrastructure at the proposed Mapungubwe Border Post. The three Governments of Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa agreed to set up a border post linking the three countries six years ago, but sadly nothing has been done so far on our side,” he said.
Minister Mohadi said the proposal was aimed at decongesting traffic at Beitbridge Border Post, which normally gets extremely busy during public holidays. Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, which handles a huge volume of both human and vehicular traffic every day.
Some of the commercial traffic would be destined to East and Central Africa.
“Ideally when we mooted the idea of putting a border post at Mapungubwe, we wanted to decongest Beitbridge. You will find that the proposed border would also be convenient for locals staying along the borderline especially villagers in Shashe as well as people from south-western parts of the country such as Gwanda,” he said.
The project was proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which initially received the funds from Treasury.
“We no longer get a direct funding from Treasury, but instead Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has now taken over all infrastructural developments in all the country’s border posts,” said Minister Mohadi.
Efforts to contact Zimra commissioner-general, Mr Gershom Pasi were fruitless as his mobile phone continuously went unanswered since Monday. Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s phone was also not reachable.
The Minister of Public Works, Joel Gabbuza whose Ministry is responsible for the construction of Government buildings, said he was not aware of the Mapungubwe Border Post project.
“I am not aware of the Mapungubwe Border Post project because it is not on our list of activity and neither do we have it on our map. However, I will have to find out with my staff in Matabeleland South.
“If we are given money for the project, we would definitely work on it because it is our core responsibility as Public Works,” he said.
When Chronicle visited the site of the proposed border post on Wednesday, there was no activity taking place.
There is however, an abandoned staff house constructed four years ago, a few bricks and a tin house where some of the building material is kept.
Part of the perimeter fence has been vandalised.
Chronicle observed that the roof of the house has started falling apart due to lack of maintenance.
The gravel road leading to the site is in a bad state making it inaccessible.
Villagers said the site was abandoned four years ago.
“We only had activity at this place in 2007 when the house was being constructed and since that time it has been neglected and no one seem to care about it.
“Some people even stole bricks and part of the fence since the person manning the place is hardly found there,” said Mrs Joyce Kgomotso Tlou, a local villager.
Online Reporter