Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
TSHOLOTSHO Senator Cde Alice Dube has called on the District Development Fund (DDF) to join hands with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho 115km road project.
The Second Republic has already started working on the road from the 10km peg towards Nyamandlovu Business Centre.
The Government plans to complete the reconstruction of the road well before the end of the year as the President Mnangagwa led administration pushes on with fulfilment of pre-election promises, most of which have either been achieved or are on course.
Having sound roads, under the Second Republic, is considered one of the critical enablers towards achieving people driven and oriented National Development Strategy (NDS1), the Government’s five-year economic master plan which spans 2021 to 2025.
The road project was earlier estimated to cost about $350 million, and is expected to bring huge relief to the motoring public and enhance economic activity in the district, which is home to the first-ever Rural Electrification Agency’s 60KW solar project at Bemba area under Chief Tategulu, 70km from Tsholotsho Business Centre.
Despite the distance from Bulawayo to Tsholotsho being only 115km, it presently takes up to four hours or more to drive due to the poor state of the road.
The bad road has also forced public transporters and private operators, including cross-border transporters popularly known as Omalayitsha, to use the longer route via Solusi, which adds on to the cost of transportation.
Said Sen Dube: “We live with the people and we hear all their concerns, every day. Every other time you get told that Tsholotsho has been home to a Vice President (the late Cde John Landa Nkomo), a Governor (now Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution), Cde Cain Mathema, yet our roads are the poorest in the country. I therefore urge the DDF to complement the central government’s commendable work to also start the reconstruction of the road from Tsholotsho Business Centre going towards Nyamandlovu,” said Sen Dube.
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has distributed nearly $6 billion to all provinces and local authorities for road maintenance in the first quarter of this year under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2).
In February this year, Zinara set aside $17 billion for the ERRP, which is in line with the ethos of the NDS1 whose main aspirations include infrastructural development as a key enabler to attaining Vision 2030 aimed at transforming the country into an upper middle-income economy.
Zinara does not do road work itself, but is the collection authority for the two sources of revenue that must be spent on roads, vehicle licence fees and toll fees.
Online Reporter