The Sunday Mail
Navigating through Harare’s roads has become a nightmare for all road users as the state of the nation’s primary city roads continues to deteriorate, with no meaningful mitigatory methods in sight, at least for the time being.
It is almost as if the authorities have given up the potholes fight and Zimbabweans being the innovative and ever-sarcastic people that they are, have come up with a joke concerning the potholes.
The joke goes: “Mapotholes ari muHarare ungati kwanga kune World Cup yenhodo.”
The sad situation on the roads has been worsened by the incessant rains which have been pounding the country of late, in the process rendering some areas unnavigable and impassable due to the bad state of the roads.
As has become the norm, the most affected have been the primary highways which lead to most high-density areas of the city, described by users as death traps disguised as roads.
Commuters argue that the obtaining bad state of the roads has given rise to congestion and accidents along the city’s roads as motorists try to avoid bad patches.
“Where we used to have roads, we now have strips with gullies, pits and trenches in the midst, which renders travelling using these roads a dangerous exercise,’’ said a commuter transport user from Budiriro.
He suggested that the authorities convert the damaged roads into dust roads that can withstand harsh weather phenomenon.
A commuter omnibus driver plying the same route, Milton Gambara, added that transport operators are now incurring serious damages to their vehicles as a result of the bad state of the roads.
“The dollar per trip we charge is minimal, considering the value of depreciation we suffer when we embark on a single trip to town,” he said.
Another motorist said it was becoming extremely difficult to drive around the city’s roads, especially after heavy rains as potholes would be covered by water. “The rainwater fills up the potholes and one cannot tell how deep a pothole is, and that has caused serious damages to our cars,” he said.
However, this is despite the fact that the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara), which is the custodian of all national roads, continues to levy road users with indications that the parastatal collects in excess of US$5,5 million per month from the 26 tollgates dotted around the country.
Furthermore, Zinara also collects around US$130 million annually from road access fees, vehicle licensing, transit fees and fuel levy among other revenue streams.
Due to this astronomical revenue collected by the road authority, many have been prompted to question the obtaining state of the country’s primary roads, which many insist rank among the ugliest on the continent.
However, Zinara says it distributed quite a generous amount in road rehabilitation aid to local authorities to repair most of their local roads, but surprisingly, most urban roads continue to be an eyesore.
Last year, Zinara said it bought graders and provided 2 000 litres of fuel for each local council countrywide for use in the rehabilitation of roads.
“Our target is to rehabilitate 10 000km of road network by December (2014).
“We expect to complete 40 percent of the gravel road by year end,” the acting chief executive officer of Zinara, Moses Juma, said last year.
The Harare City Council is also said to have benefited from that initiative.
Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme said the city was responsible for the primary roads in the city although they did so with assistance from Zinara, which was the custodian of all roads in the country.
“Currently, we are working with Zinara on a blitz to fill potholes, do road markings and road verges on most of the roads in the city,” he said.
“However, the city’s long-term plan was a complete overhaul of the road network which requires a huge capital outlay in excess of US$400 million”.
Chideme said for this year, Zinara promised to avail US$1,3 million for the road rehabilitation processes, but, however, he said the amount was hardly enough for the city’s 5 500km road network.
Harare Residents’ Trust director, Precious Shumba, argued that road maintenance of the city roads had nothing to do with Zinara.
“The City of Harare has the primary responsibility of repairing roads, in terms of the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29.15), Second Schedule section 198, paragraph 19 (1) is specific that ‘subject to any other law, to provide and maintain roads, bridges, canals, reservoirs, dams, water courses, furrows, and culverts,” he said.
He instead accused the city authorities of failing to execute their mandate.
“The council just takes gravel to fill in potholes, which results in the gravel being swept away by rains and subsequent flooding and blockage of the drainage systems,” said Mr Shumba.
“The end result is the current floods being experienced, and one of the key things emerging is the poor workmanship on the roads.”
He accused the city of also failing to plan for consistent road maintenance and rehabilitation, waiting instead until the rains come or when there are huge potholes in the communities.
He argued that it is rather nonsensical that the city continues to argue that road rehabilitation must be aided by Zinara, just by the mere fact that they handle vehicle licensing.
“This is a clear demonstration of the city fathers’ reluctance to plan basing on the reality obtaining.
“Most roads require overhaul, but a lot of the roads require being resurfaced and rehabilitated,” he said.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Dr Obert Mpofu, said his ministry will this year engage local authorities in patching roads riddled by potholes in residential areas and in some inner city roads that are in urban areas and are under the jurisdiction of local authorities.
“As the parent ministry responsible for all roads countrywide, we will now work with local authorities this year, with the aid of the equipment and resources we have at Zinara that we will channel in rehabilitating most of the roads in the high-density areas.
“We want the local authorities to work with us so as to achieve a healthy and sound road network within all our roads countrywide,” said Dr Mpofu.
Harare’s 10 worst roads
Budiriro Turnoff (off Marimba Road) up to Budiriro 4 shops
Tait Road — Hillside
James Martin Avenue — Southerton Industries
Mupani Road passing through Marimba Police Station
Shawasha Road, off from Cripps Road into Mbare passing through Shawasha Police and Matapi Flats
Waterfalls Avenue
Cranborne West Avenue off Boshoff drive
Seke Road
St Davis Road — Hatfield
Windmill Lane – Borrowdale
