Online ReporterMkhululi Ncube, [email protected]
FOR more than 750 kilometres, Mr Nqobile Mkhwananzi is swapping the comfort of a vehicle for the open road in a personal mission to change how Zimbabweans treat their environment.
The Victoria Falls-based environmental campaigner, popularly known as the “Rhino-man”, is walking from Victoria Falls to Beitbridge to raise awareness against littering along the country’s major highways.
His gruelling journey comes as September is being observed as “Clean-up Zimbabwe Month”, with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) intensifying efforts to promote responsible waste management.
Mr Mkhwananzi reached Bulawayo on Friday, where he participated in the combined Zero Waste Movement and World Clean Up Day commemorations at Large City Hall Carpark before continuing his journey to Beitbridge. On Tuesday he was in Gwanda, and the journey continues. For him, the walk is about confronting an everyday habit that is increasingly turning the country’s highways into dumping grounds.
“I know as we travel most drivers and passengers tend to snack on the go and throw litter along the highway, which is not good for the image of the country,” he said.
The journey also carries a tourism message, with September being Tourism Month and major highways serving as an important first impression for visitors travelling across the country.
“As we all know that September is also Tourism Month, when tourists visit and see our highways littered with filth, we are sending a wrong message to them. Some may not want to return,” he said.
Mr Mkhwananzi said the consequences could extend beyond the appearance of the roads, with poor waste management potentially having serious implications for the economy.
He encouraged communities to take responsibility for their surroundings, saying regular clean-up campaigns would have less need to be held if people adopted responsible waste-disposal habits.
His journey has also become an opportunity to take the environmental message directly to communities and schools along the route, turning the long walk into a moving classroom on environmental responsibility.
EMA Bulawayo provincial environmental education and publicity officer, Ms Kayleen Dube, hailed Mr Mkhwananzi’s commitment to environmental conservation.
“From awareness raising to action Mr Mkhwananzi continues to demonstrate that environmental stewardship requires practical action. Through his walk from Victoria Falls to Beitbridge during the September Clean-up Zimbabwe Month, he is engaging schools and communities on keeping their surroundings and highways clean, while encouraging transporters and commuters to avoid littering,” she said.
Ms Dube said Mr Mkhwananzi’s promotion of school environmental clubs was also helping learners develop environmental responsibility through practical activities such as clean-ups and recycling.
She said keeping highways clean protects the environment while promoting responsible behaviour among road users and communities.
For Mr Mkhwananzi, every kilometre brings him closer to Beitbridge — but the bigger journey is towards changing attitudes, one road user and one community at a time. -@themkhust
