Government mobilises resources to rehabilitate major highways in Matabeleland

The Government is mobilising resources to rehabilitate major roads in the Matabeleland region as it moves ahead with infrastructure development across the country.

In an interview with New Ziana, Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister Joshua Sacco, said work will soon commence on the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road and the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road.

The state of roads in the region has been a cause of concern to stakeholders and motorists as driving had become a nightmare due to potholes and total collapse of some stretches of the roads.

From Bulawayo to Victoria Falls, the road is littered with potholes with some badly damaged patches near Lupane as well as around Hwange.

A journey from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo now takes six to eight hours instead of four hours.

“The Second Republic has been active in terms of infrastructure development. The work is commencing on Bulawayo Victoria Falls Road as well as other major roads across the country.

“With regards to Bulawayo -Tsholotsho, Bulawayo-Nkayi roads, I think development is a process as you know our country is under sanctions and our President has guided us to look inwards in terms of resource mobilisation.

“But you need to understand the resources being used are coming from our fiscus. These are not loans because of illegal sanctions imposed on our country. We cannot access loans and lines of credits like any other country on the continent,” he said.

Sacco said rehabilitation of the Beitbridge – Harare Highway was a clear testimony of government`s commitment to improve infrastructure using internal sources.

“A good example is Beitbridge-Masvingo which was offered to an Austrian contractor for many years and there was no progress but now we have local contractors working on the road.

“So like what our President said we eat what we kill. So the process is we go through budgetary process in Parliament where budgets are worked out.

“After the process, funds will be allocated in the new year to different roads across the country. We may not be where we want to be for now but definitely there is progress in terms of infrastructure development,” said Sacco.

He cited the rehabilitation of the Beitbridge Border Post, the new Victoria Falls International Airport, the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare and the Mbudzi Interchange as flagship projects being spearheaded by President Mnangagwa`s administration.

“A lot of work is happening especially as we go towards the rainy season. Mbudzi Interchange is another infrastructure project that is being done and I am sure it’s now 50 percent complete,” said Sacco.

Under the National Development Strategy (NDS1), road rehabilitation falls under the infrastructure cluster and roads are regarded as key economic enablers in line with the vision of attaining an upper middle –income by 2030.-ebusinessweekly