Zimbabwe’s roads in a state of disaster – transport minister

Zimbabwe’s roads are in a state of disaster and need urgent attention, Transport Minister Joram Gumbo has said.

A Zimbabwean road.

Gumbo told journalists Wednesday that the government had since set up a committee chaired by the finance and economic development ministry to mobilise resources for the urgent repair of the roads.

He attributed the road damage to incessant rains caused by Cyclone Dineo that have pounded the country, saying the road networks had “further deteriorated to the extent that some sections . . . have become impassable”.

“The ministry of finance and economic development has, to date, raised US$14,5 million of the US$100 million that is required for the emergency road repair programme, and this money is being availed to all the road authorities ‑ department of roads, urban councils, district development fund (DDF) and rural district councils,” Gumbo said.

“Zinara [Zimbabwe National Roads Administration] is also contributing to this mobilisation of financing, and has to date funded repairs of strategic routes in Harare.”

He said Zinara was looking at raising US$50 million through a loan facility

The transport minister said the road repair works would be funded in three stages, which were emergency, preventative and rehabilitation/reconstruction.

Gumbo said they had already commenced the “first phase of urgent and emergency works” and would continue until all emergencies had been addressed.

He said members of the committee included Zinara, the finance and economic development ministry, transport and infrastructural development ministry, local government, public works and national housing ministry, Office of the President and Cabinet, as well as the DDF.

A haulage transport operator, Fidelis Chigwende, said he now preferred his trucks to use the Botswana route when delivering goods to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the road network there was better compared to Zimbabwe’s.

Two weeks ago, President Robert Mugabe was reported to have declared Harare’s road network a state of disaster.

“Harare metropolitan province has suffered the brunt of the La Nina phenomena and has received rainfall amounts of 120% to 200% above normal. These excessive rains have decimated the road network throughout the province,” local government minister Saviour Kasukuwere said then.

“Given the magnitude of the extensive damage of the road network and the attendant risk to injury, loss of life, together with the economic impact of an unusable road network, His Excellency, the President [Robert Mugabe] has declared a state of disaster in regard to the road network in Harare metropolitan province in terms of subsection (1) of Section 27 of the Civil Protection Act chapter 10.06.”