NEW: SADC Ministers meet over North-South Corridor infrastructure

Freeman Razemba

Senior Reporter

A Sadc high-level Ministerial Round Table Dialogue on Infrastructure to support the North-South Corridor is currently underway in Harare.

The meeting is being attended by Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona, who is also the Chairperson of the Joint Committee of Ministers responsible for Transport, ICT, Information and Meteorology.

Ms. Angèle Makombo N’tumba, the SADC Deputy Executive Secretary responsible for Regional Integration; Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere; Minister of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services, Dr Tatenda Mavetera, Permanent Secretaries and their regional counterparts are also in attendance.

Zimbabwe is hosting the SADC Ministerial meeting on Transport, Infrastructure, ICT And Meteorology this week. The meeting aims to review progress on programmes supporting regional integration.

It started on Monday and ends tomorrow.

Zimbabwe has since assured SADC Member States that it is committed to the upgrading of the North-South Corridor, which is a vital international trunk road essential for the country’s trade with neighbouring countries.

The African Union has also forecast that the corridor will become one of the continent’s busiest transport corridors by 2040.

Government is on record saying with the increased promotion of regional economic integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it has become even more imperative to facilitate trade with neighbouring countries.

This week, Engineer Joy Makumbe, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and co-chairperson of senior SADC officials responsible for Transport, ICT, Information and Meteorology, confirmed that discussions for the North-South Corridor were on their agenda.

“So what we have been discussing at this meeting is that as a region, we need to do more with regards to integration, and we are looking at issues to do with the North-South Corridor, that is linking South Africa all the way to the DRC.

“We have started at Zimbabwe, where you have seen us doing the Harare-Beitbridge Road, and also the Harare-Chirundu, where we are linking Beitbridge to Chirundu Border Post. But then the issue is, what next when you get to Chirundu? It doesn’t help if, for example, the road network or border is not good when you get to Zambia.

“So we need a holistic approach to make sure that the transportation network is good. As a region, we need to look at where we can get the funding. We need to approach this as a bloc.”