TRANSPORT and Infrastructure Development minister ObertMpofu has revealed that he will soon be conducting a tour of provinces to assess the damage heavy rains caused to the country’s roads.
Mpofu said this in the National Assembly while responding to Zanu PF Zaka Central MP Paradzai Chakona who had asked what the government was doing to repair the roads after the rainy season. Chakona said most roads, especially in rural areas, had seriously been affected by the heavy rains and wanted to know what arrangements the Zimbabwe National Road Authority, District Development Fund and rural district councils had done to repair the roads.
In response, Mpofu — the legislator for Umguza in Matabeleland North — said: “I want to thank the honourable member for his question, which is a question being asked by most members from various constituencies. What I want to say to the member is that there are a lot of rains; they are not over yet.
“We have directed that all our road engineers in provinces take stock of the damage that has been caused by the incessant rains in respective areas where damage of infrastructure to roads, bridges has been experienced, for us to plan for repairs to the damage.
“I will be taking a tour of the provinces in liaison with the ministers of State responsible for provinces to have an on-the-spot appreciation of the damage before we deal with the situation if funding is available.”
It is fair and fine that Mpofu has seen it fit to undertake the tour to assess the damage on the roads blamed on the recent incessant rains.
However, the affable minister should be reminded that charity begins at home. With or without rains, the southern region has for the past three decades put up with strips of roads and other footpaths that pass off as roads endangering the lives of passengers and untold damage to vehicles.
It is grossly disturbing that 34 years after independence, the Kezi Road leading to the homestead of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, aka Father Zimbabwe, remains a strip road.
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The same is true regarding other roads, namely the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road, the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho Road, the Binga-Gokwe Road which links Matabeleland North to Northern Zimbabwe and the 150km stretch Cross Dete Road leading to Binga Centre, which remain death traps with or without the rains. We await with bated breath comrade Mpofu’s tour of duty.
