Online Reporter
Freeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
More youths and women will be employed during the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme Phase 2 (ERRP2) to be undertaken by the Government and local authorities countrywide.
The Government is collaborating with local authorities to address the state of roads across the country through the ERRP2.
The ERRP2 initiative aims to repair roads in both urban and rural areas that have been damaged by the recent heavy rains.
President Mnangagwa last year extended the ERRP2 to 2026, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to building a modern, interconnected transport network that positions Zimbabwe as a regional logistics hub of choice.
Initially launched in March 2021 as a short-term response to widespread road damage caused by years of neglect and extreme weather, ERRP2 has since evolved into a long-term national infrastructure revival initiative driving economic transformation in line with Vision 2030.
The extension is expected to accelerate the construction of new roads, the rehabilitation of existing routes, and the upgrading of drainage and safety infrastructure, particularly along strategic economic corridors that connect Zimbabwe with the broader Southern African Development Community (SADC).
In an interview, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Cde Felix Mhona, said the mitigatory factor was now to deal with issues around drainage repairs and clearing them as they construct roads in urban areas and other major roads.
The minister said they had also procured two asphalt plants, and they were in the process of procuring four more for road maintenance purposes.
“You are going to see us collaborating closely with the City of Harare and I am happy that this is a working arrangement already in place where we are also to get trucks and also get human elements in terms of labour from the City of Harare. And we also do payments through Zinara so that we hire our people,” he said.
“And the good news to the people of Zimbabwe is that as we partake into this exercise, we are saying let us come together and work together.
“We have got our youths, we have got our women who are supposed to be working in all these projects.
“So you will see that as we then embark on these very massive projects of attending to our roads, we will also be creating employment for our people.”
Minister Mhona said plans were also underway to resuscitate the asphalt plant for the City of Harare through this collaboration.
The Government acquired two new asphalt plants for Harare and Bulawayo in December last year as part of a strategic drive to build internal capacity and reduce the high costs of outsourcing road maintenance work.
The initiative formed the cornerstone of a broader national plan to eventually deploy at least one asphalt plant in each of the country’s 10 provinces.
