The Sunday Mail
Garikai Mazara —
The wet spell, whilst spelling good omens for farmers, is certainly not being well-received by motorists in urban areas.
The pothole menace is alive and well.
The announcement by Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere that the state of the country’s roads is a state of disaster is a starting point.
What is needed now is a solid plan.
From rainy season to rainy season, local authorities patch-up potholes with the result that the tarred surface ends up horribly uneven.
In some instances, potholes emerge next to patched spots, meaning that in the next patching season, the newly emerged potholes will add to the uneveness.
Some of the work is not done with equal perfection and sometimes with different materials. The idea of patching roads does not work: the road system needs to be overhauled. The tarmac has to be removed, and — as indicated in mid-week media reports — replaced with concrete.
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration, in conjunction with the City of Harare, mid-last year last year patched some of the capital’s feeder roads. Only two months into 2017, most of these roads have developed potholes.
High Glen road, stretching from the Kuwadzana round-about to the Glen Norah area popularly known as “Pamasimbi”, was re-surfaced. From “Pamasimbi” into Glen Norah, Gumbi Road was re-surfaced, to where it meets Chambati Road, as well as the stretch of Chambati Road to High Glen Road.
But today all these stretches are littered with potholes such that they almost impassable, with the length parallel to High Glen shopping complex the most affected.
Equally damaged is the stretch of road that runs from the Western Triangle bus rank to Machipisa to Gazaland. Last year efforts were made to patch up this stretch of road with gravel.
Driving into the central business district using the Charter Road thoroughfare, one encounters potholes at the round-about where Kaguvi Street meets Charter Road. This is the route that visitors travelling from Masvingo, including our visitors from South Africa, use when entering Harare — the Sunshine City.
Then there is the stretch of road that runs from Kambuzuma Road to Gleneagles Road, past GMB Aspindale and the National Railways of Zimbabwe shunting yard. This one no longer qualifies to be called a road.
To narrate road-by-road would take forever. Suffice to say most roads in the capital city are past their lifespan.
A new road network is needed.
Which brings the question: where is the Zimbabwe National Road Administration in all this? What is happening to the money collected at tollgates, all 26 of them? For how long will the dispute between Zinara and local authorities be allowed to run while our roads die?
Whilst the realisation that the country’s roads are a state of disaster is good, what are needed now are pragmatic approaches, moving from making mere political pronouncements to actual delivery.
On a field trip to Kanyemba last year, we learnt that Zimbabweans in that part of the country would rather go to Luangwa, Zambia for provisions and services instead of coming to Harare.
Using public transport, it costs US$8 to travel to Lusaka, a return trip that can be done in one day; yet travelling to Harare costs US$20 and the trip cannot be undertaken on the same day.
The distance is the same either way, the difference being that from Luangwa to Lusaka, the road is tarred, while from Harare to Kanyemba it is not.
This gives an indication of how much commercial value we are losing as country at a time we are mourning the externalisation of foreign currency.
Kanyemba is not alone. A number of centres around Zimbabwe suffer from the same lack of accessibility. Binga has a lot of tourism potential, given that it lies in the Zambezi frontier where wildlife freely roams, and the area has what is probably the best sandy beach in the country.
But all this potential remains untapped because Binga is largely unaccessible, especially when the Heavens open.
One of the cornerstones of Zim-Asset is infrastructure development, and a developed and modern road network should be part of that.
There are some corporates, notably the National Social Security Authority, that have taken it upon themselves to attend to stretches of roads near their premises.
Whilst this is commendable, we should ask why companies and individuals have to take to repairing roads when we have a fully funded national road authority collecting levies from motorists on a daily basis?
In some instances, to rub salt into injury, some of the tollgates sit next to potholes. Or are the potholes lying next to tollgates? Quite sad.
The local authorities, led by the City of Harare, have been crying foul, arguing that they are incapacitated to deal with roads since Zinara is now in charge.
They further argue that the annual allocations they are given by the road administration fund are a pittance.
Isn’t it time this issue is put to rest? can’t the responsible ministries come to the table and find a way forward?
And probably it is about time as well that someone gives us a breakdown of the real cost of laying a new road surface.
May someone out there justify the million dollars for a kilometre equation? If it is that expensive, how cheaper is it to migrate to cement surfaces? Do we halve the costs?
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