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Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
RESIDENTS of Cowdray Park suburb in Bulawayo, who were facing transport challenges owing to the poor state of roads, can now afford to smile after Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko intervened by engaging an engineering company to rehabilitate roads in their area. The engineering company is already on site and the upgrading of the roads started on Monday, a few days after VP Mphoko engaged the company.
Residents were being forced to walk long distances or pay twice for a single trip to the city centre as commuter omnibuses shunned their area owing to the bad roads.
Speaking at the launch of the $10 million Bulawayo West electrification project last Friday, VP Mphoko said he had engaged a contractor to assist in the grading of roads in the western suburbs.
A visit by The Chronicle to the suburb yesterday indicated that construction workers were busy at work and the larger part of the road leading to Cowdray Park Primary school had already been graded.
The grading of roads is mostly being done in the Garikai Hlalani Kuhle area as well as an area known as Emastendini.
Zanu-PF candidate for Luveve constituency, Cde Ntandoyenkosi Mlilo, who was leading the works in the suburb, said the bad roads in the area were a result of bad governance by the MDC-led council.
“We want to show people what Zanu-PF can do for them. We are development-oriented and results oriented. For the past 15 years people have been voting for the opposition party but the MDC-T has failed them.
Grading roads is not the mandate of Members of Parliament but that of the local authority. These urban councils have failed the people,” said Cde Mlilo.
He said people should realise that they made a mistake in the past and this is the time to rectify their mistakes.
“We have a number of projects lined up but we will not pre-empt them for now. We are urging people to vote for Zanu-PF in next month’s by-election,” said Cde Mlilo.
The road rehabilitation work is expected to be complete within a week. Cde Mlilo said more than 20 kilometres of dust road in Cowdray Park would have been upgraded by then.
Cde Mlilo will contest the Luveve seat against Fanuel Tshuma (Transform Zimbabwe), Morgan Ntuli (National Constitutional Assembly) and three independent candidates Thembelihle Sibanda, Mkhululi Nyathi and Willias Dube.
Besides initiating the road rehabilitation programme in the city’s suburbs, VP Mphoko is spearheading a number of projects aimed at reviving Bulawayo’s industry together with aspiring Zanu-PF members of parliament in the June 10 by-elections.
Among the candidates is Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube who is eyeing the Makokoba constituency seat.
Launching his campaigns during an inter-district executive meeting last Friday, Rtd Col Tshinga-Dube said Zanu-PF supporters needed to learn from their mistakes and win all the seats in the by-elections.
“VP Mphoko has agreed to help in spearheading the revival of Bulawayo as this remains the greatest challenge in the province. We are changing strategies this time and we will try and gain the support of non-Zanu-PF members in Bulawayo,” he said.
Rtd Col Dube said they would start with five projects to be run within Makokoba constituency.
Bulawayo was once Zimbabwe’s industrial hub and boasted a number of large manufacturing and engineering companies.
These included the Treger Group, Zimbabwe Engineering Company, Hubert Davies, Merlin Textiles, Stewarts & Lloyds, Build Elect, Dunlop, Hunyani Holdings and G&D Shoes.
Over the past 10 years, most of these companies have closed leaving more than 20, 000 people jobless.
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