Good roads a must: Minister

Victor Maphosa
One way to guarantee that citizens’ rights are protected is by ensuring that the country’s infrastructure is usable all the time, a Cabinet minister has said. Officially opening the recently rehabilitated Zaire-St Mary’s Road in Hwedza on Saturday, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo commended Hwedza West Member of Parliament(MP) Engineer Michael Madanha for tirelessly working for his constituency’s development.

“Let me commend your MP, Eng Madanha, for carrying out his duties and representing all of you by making sure the constituency is developed. He approached Government and Government responded well and now most of the roads which have been neglected since 1980 are now usable,” said Minister Gumbo.

“This is a good example of leadership and other parliamentarians should learn not to lie to people that they will build roads for the people if they get into power, because only Government can provide the best infrastructure for its people,” he said.

Dr Gumbo made a commitment to work with the leadership of Mashonaland East in order to ensure that all roads in the province are usable.

“As the Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, I will make sure all roads which link to important places like schools and hospitals in this province are usable at all times,” he said.

Dr Gumbo said Government considered rehabilitating the 10km road from Zaire to Mt St Mary’s a priority in order to make St Mary’s Hospital, which is the biggest health facility in Hwedza, accessible.

Minister of State for Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Mr David Musabayana applauded Government for rehabilitating most roads in the province, saying this is likely to boost business.

“Our President, Cde Mnangagwa, is always saying Zimbabwe is open for business and this means Mash East is open for business, which also means Hwedza district is open for business and that is why today we applaud Government for making our roads usable so that investors can access places of conducting business,” he said.

An enabling infrastructure network, he said, could make doing business easier. “We cannot say we have opened the doors of doing business if other areas are not reachable because of poor roads,” he said.