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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau

The ongoing rehabilitation and modernisation of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway has seen Masvingo City gaining 10km stretches of dual carriageway on each side, to cope with city traffic, as well as national traffic, plus upgrades of three bridges within the city to handle the wider road and greater traffic flows.

Completed sections of the road are now up to regional standards, as the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa continues to walk the talk on infrastructural development, which is a key enabler of Vision 2030 targets.

Residents and villagers across Masvingo province paid glowing tribute to the Government for moving in to rehabilitate Zimbabwe’s busiest highway.

This comes in the wake of the opening to traffic on 216km of the highway that falls within the province’s boundaries.

Government, under the stewardship of President Mnangagwa, has been rehabilitating and upgrading the country’s roads under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme as part of efforts to ensure speedy movement of goods and humans to stimulate economic growth in line with Vision 2030.

The Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway is a key artery for trade and commerce and links Zimbabwe to South Africa, which is the country’s largest trading partner.

Besides rehabilitating and widening the key road to regional standards, Government also sealed a deal with contractors for them to dualise 10km stretches into and out of Masvingo along the highway, to cope with the urban traffic that joins the international and inter-city traffic closer to the city.

This development is partly influenced by the need to cater for future expansion of the towns.

Dualisation of the 10km stretches of the highway leading into and out of Masvingo city is expected to cost US$30 million.

Masimba Construction has already finished dualising the first 10km stretch that starts from around the Gokomere area to the city, while work on the other 10km stretch that starts from the southern part of the city to Nyanda mountains, along the Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway, is now at an advanced stage.

Besides dualising the two 10km stretches, Masimba will also build three new modern bridges in the city as part of the highway modernisation project to ease congestion.

Among the three bridges will be an all-weather state-of-the-art structure at Chimusana upstream of the old bridge across Mucheke River.

Besides stimulating the local economy through contracting small local companies in and around Masvingo City to supply raw materials like quarry stone, Masimba has also benefited the local community through employment creation.

The majority of Masimba’s estimated 500 employees in Masvingo province are contract workers employed from surrounding communities along the highway.

By creating jobs for locals and boosting incomes for local small businesses close to the highway, Masimba has been earning plaudits for steering socio-economic transformation in its theatre of operation.

Masvingo residents say the ongoing highway rehabilitation and modernisation project was a master stroke by President Mnangagwa’s administration, adding that the road would have far-reaching economic benefits for Masvingo City, the province and nation at large.

For a city angling for world class status by 2030, residents believe the highway project will add impetus to that initiative.

Mr Nelson Mahachi of Rujeko suburb praised President Mnangagwa, saying modernising the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway using local resources and expertise was the mark of a visionary.

“We never imagined that this road, the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway, could be transformed like this in such a short space of time more so considering that for many years the previous dispensation was actually mulling hiring a foreign contractor to undertake the job,” he said.

“We have local companies like Masimba Construction that are doing the work using local resources and this must be applauded.’’

Mr Mahachi said local companies had shown the world they had the requisite expertise to undertake huge infrastructural projects which was a boon for the local economy going into the future.

The same sentiments were echoed by Eastvale suburb resident Mr Michiel Muputa, who hailed the Second Republic for walking the talk on kick-starting the journey to an upper middle income economy in Zimbabwe by 2030.

“A good road network is a key pillar for any drive to grow and develop the economy and we want to applaud the Second Republic for investing in the upgrading of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway which links Zimbabwe with its largest trading partner South Africa, upon completion of this project it will be faster to travel to and from South Africa which is a boon for trade and commerce,” he said.

“This highway was a menace in terms of carnage and that will soon be a thing of the past.”

Businessman Mr Charles Matapura said President Mnangagwa and his Government were proving that indeed a country is developed by its people.

“We never thought local companies could do such a sterling job and build such a world-class road,” he said.

“Movement of both goods and human traffic will be faster and safer with this road. The narrow road that was there was now a nightmare for motorists and passengers alike.

“A lot of lives were being lost along this highway which was now being overwhelmed by traffic and was also heavily potholed having been built in the 1960s and 1970s for almost 20 percent of vehicular traffic that was now daily plying on the road.”

Another city businessman Mr Julius Marimbire lauded President Mnangagwa, saying Zimbabwe will never be the same again.

“The President deserves a pat on the back and he really means it when he says, ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’, we are seeing local companies using local labour, resources and materials to build a world class road and this is good for our economy because we are not exporting jobs with such projects, but actually creating them by making sure the money circulates in our local economy,” he said.

“Big and small companies have been getting their own share of the cake from this project and this is good for our economy and makes the Vision 2030 dream very realistic.”

Ms Memory Magwizi of Rhodene suburb said the ongoing project to modernise the highway would forever remain President Mnangagwa’s legacy and had etched his name permanently in the mind of Zimbabweans.

“I went to Harare one morning recently to apply for a passport and by 6pm I was already back for my night shift duty at work because it is now very easy to travel from Masvingo to Harare as the highway has been rehabilitated and is now wider and of world class standards,” she said.

Previously you would think twice before embarking on a journey to Harare, but now the situation has changed thanks to President Mnangagwa’s visionary leadership.

“President Mnangagwa is creating a legacy that will last for generations because the highway upgrade project was long overdue, but what is striking is that he is doing it with local resources and using local companies, this has opened new opportunities for other local companies and it also means by 2030 most of our major roads and highways would have been upgraded,’’ said Ms Magwizi.

Mr Abraham Mupuwi, a director at New Dawn, a leading construction and hardware firm in the city, said it was now easier to move stock from either Harare or South Africa which is a boon for business growth.

“Restocking used to be a nightmare for our businesses because of the poor and bad highway and we are very excited with developments taking place this shows that President Mnangagwa is a builder and is committed to create a conducive environment for businesses to thrive,’’ said Mr Mupuwi.

Farmers were also happy that they could speedily move fresh produce from farms to the market in Masvingo City, which boosted their incomes.

Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Ezra Chadzamira was also full of praise for President Mnangagwa highlighting a lot of infrastructural developments that have been undertaken in the province since the advent of the Second Republic.

‘’The Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway remains the jewel on the crown because this road is very important for Masvingo in the sphere of trade and commerce,” he said.

“We are also no longer witnessing the carnage that was caused by the poor state of the highway coupled with high traffic volume.

“This is a game-changer project for Masvingo and President Mnangagwa should be applauded for this project.’’

About 278km of the highway falls under the Masvingo provincial boundaries out of which 216km have since been rehabilitated and opened to traffic by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development which is in charge of the highway.

The Second Republic decided to award the contract to rehabilitate and modernise the highway to local companies after cancelling a contract for the job that had been awarded to an Austrian firm Geiger International.

Geiger failed to undertake any works despite being awarded the tender in a project that was going to cost the country around US$2 billion.

President Mnangagwa’s administration timely intervened and decided to use local resources to pay local contractors to upgrade the highway thereby saving the much-needed hard currency while also stimulating the local economy.