Zimpapers Logo

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau

The upgrading of the 327km Beitbridge-Bulawayo highway has taken longer than necessary and the Government is considering awarding the tender to another contractor, President Mnangagwa has said.

He said the current contractor had taken more than one year to get things moving, a development that was stalling progress.

President Mnangagwa said the Second Republic was leaving no stone unturned in terms of spreading economic and infrastructure development in Zimbabwe.

Speaking during a rally at Dulivhadzimu Stadium in Beitbridge East constituency on Wednesday, the President said good roads were key to facilitating local, regional and international trade.

“As a Government, we are building our country and that includes the fixing of roads because the development of any country hinges on economic trade locally, regionally, and internationally,” said President Mnangagwa.

“This requires good roads and the Beitbridge to Masvingo is already under construction and as for the Beitbridge to Bulawayo road, we are almost past a year after having given a tender to one contractor.

“However, it appears he is failing, so ndaitaura naVaChiwenga vakati, pada haana mari uyu, ngatitsvagei umwe basa rifambe (I was talking to Vice President Chiwenga about that road and we reckon the contractor might be lacking

resources. Now we are considering giving that tender to someone else who will be able to deliver).

He said more roads were being upgraded and rehabilitated under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2).

The President said the Government had the much-needed resources to fully implement the ERRP.

President Mnangagwa said in Matabeleland South, the Gwanda to Maphisa, West Nicholson to Mberengwa, Stanmore to Filabusi, and the Plumtree to Ndolwane roads would be urgently fixed under the ERRP initiative.

A total of $33,6bn has been budgeted for the second phase (ERRP2) and the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has already disbursed $2,3bn to various local authorities.

Under ERRP2, the Government is targeting to rehabilitate 10 000km of roads countrywide.

The rehabilitation and modernisation of the country’s road infrastructure so far have seen the opening of more than 160km to traffic on the Harare-Beitbridge road and the refurbishment of the Karoi-Binga road among other roads.

“We are having a number of projects underway that will improve the way of life of Zimbabweans, these include the drilling of 35 000 boreholes in the next three years in all the villages countrywide.

“Now, we are in the process of importing the rigs and so far, we have taken receipt of 20 rigs which will be distributed to each of our 10 provinces,” said the President.

He said, in three years, each village should have access to clean water and a communal garden for women.

President Mnangagwa said efforts were also underway to address the issues of poor radio and television reception in selected areas across the country.