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Thupeyo Muleya–Beitbridge Bureau

Beitbridge residents are pleased with their new fire station in the border town built in the Government partnership as part of the US$300 million Beitbridge modernisation with the fire enigines now being ordered.

The fire station, an animal plant and quarantine, sewer oxidation dam, a landfill, roads upgrading, construction of 220 staff houses, and 11,4 megaliters reservoir are some of the out-of-port facilities falling under border modernisation that began in 2020.

The Government and the Zimborders Consortium are implementing the massive infrastructure development initiative on a 17 and half year build, operate and transfer concession.

“It was very thoughtful of the Government and the Second Republic to see it necessary to construct a state of the art fire station,” said a local businessman Mr Remember Ndou.

“The facility is very critical considering the investment done by the Government in the upgrading of the border post and the construction of 220 staff houses for its workers and other key infrastructure.

To us as businessmen, this also assurance that our premises are safe in the event we are likely to have any fire and related incidents.”

He also said President Mnangagwa and his team had lived true to their policy of leaving no one and no place behind by investing heavily in the Beitbridge transformation project.

“The team deserves another chance to continue rebuilding our beloved country,” he added.

A resident from Limpopo View, Miss Cleopatra Ncube said the new fire station fitted well into the town’s transformation into a modern city.

She said the government had done a good job by building the capacity of the town council to handle disasters better.

Miss Ncube said the local authority had for a long time been planning to have such a facility but had resource constraints and hence the intervention by the Government was timely.

“This is one of the milestone projects by the government in our town and we are grateful for this intervention. This is project is a good example of how Zimbabweans can built their own country,” she added.

A resident of Tshithaudze suburb, Ms Mercy Mbedzi said the completion of a new fire station would put an end to Beitbridge relying on South Africa for fire management services.

Speaking during the recent handover of infrastructure projects constructed in the town by the Zimborders Consortium, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona said Beitbridge Border Post and the town have experienced devastating fires on several occasions in the past years. 

“These fires led to the destruction of property and buildings as the local authority was inadequately resourced to deal with such,” said the Minister. “It was imperative therefore, to include the construction of a fire station in the project to mitigate against future such disasters. 

“This project by Zimborders is fully financed with no immediate burden placed on the Government’s fiscus. This surely is a great example of what can be achieved through successful public-private partnerships and is testimony of the good that can be achieved when the Government and the private sector work together towards the development of the nation”.

In a recent interview, Beitbridge Town Clerk, Mr loud Ramakgapola said they were excited with the spill over effects of the borderpost modernisation.

“The border post-transformation comes in with a lot of infrastructure development initiatives some of them have been in our plans for a long time, but could not take off due to limited resources,” he said.

“Our sewers have been upgraded and we have a new fire station, the road network is being upgraded from the border post towards the major cities including Bulawayo and Harare.

“In addition, the Zimborders Consortium is also going to assist us to modernise our dumpsite in the west of the town, where we have already identified a site.”

He said the construction of a new 11,4 megalitres reservoir will boost the town’s water supply capacity to supply at least 18 mega litres of water daily