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Mr Pawadyira

Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza Municipality is set to name 421 streets using natural habitat and totems, a development that is likely to bring sanity in the town where movement was a huge challenge for strangers.

The identification of the streets is already complete, while the name tagging will be done next year. Caretaker commission chairperson Mr Madzudzo Pawadyira said the town resembled a primitive way of life. “It does not augur well for a place like Chitungwiza, with a population of about 800 000 people, where, if you want to get from point A to point B you have to ask using reference posts like the Town Centre,” said Mr Pawadyira.

“It is really primitive. What we ought to do is to ensure that all the streets are named as we are entering an era of high technology Global Position System (GPS) and you cannot adopt it in a system where roads have got no names.

“All the street names are in place and we do not want to use names of people but totems, natural habitat (trees, animal names, birds) our culture is very rich in that department and we stick to that because they are non-controversial, easily understood and are easy to embrace.”

He said the cost is part of the planning process and will be availed soon after the budget is complete. “You cannot be planning for roads without naming them and it is part of the process. It is a cost that has been there, but was not being exercised for whatever reason.”

However, residents, through Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest), slammed the move to name the roads when service delivery is in limbo. Mr Pawadyira said, “We cannot give excuses for progress, we cannot have an urban set up with no road names. If I am wrong, I want to be wrong on the side of kosher. I think it is a must, otherwise I do not see how an urban community can sustain itself and keep up with the development that is taking place all over the world when you do not have even the basis of travelling,” said Mr Pawadyira.

Chitungwiza Municipality director of Works Engineer Maxwell Karenyi said they had since completed identifying the roads through a road condition survey funded by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration in December last year.

“We have completed the identification of the roads and will make a proposal of names that will pass through management for approval,” he said.