By Promise Dube
A community-oriented group, Inzalo kaGodlwayo in Insiza South has embarked on a self-funded road rehabilitation project to repair the road that connects Dolo Communal Lands and West Nicholson.
Relevant authorities had not maintained the road for the past seven years making it a nightmare for villagers who are travelling, as a trip which is supposed to take about 30 minutes ends up taking two hours at most.
In an interview with CITE, Secretary of Inzalo kaGodlwayo, Mthandazo Dube, said the group was motivated to act after seeing the deplorable state of the road due to neglect.
“Before we started the initiative, the road was in a sorry state. Motorists will spend about two hours driving from Dolo to West Nicholson yet the average time one can spend is 35 minutes,” he said.
“This was so because no maintenance was done in the period of seven years. Our vision as a community is to make sure that the road will be fixed then graded every two months.”
Dube explained that the community came together and pooled in their resources to fund the rehabilitation of the road and partner with the government on the project.
“This was after we saw no action taken to the road hence we saw it fit to initiate the project. A lot of work needs to be done because the road was badly degraded, there are a series of potholes, streams and gullies. We asked each member of the group to donate R200 in order to assist the Ministry of Transport procure road maintenance equipment,” said the secretary.
The Godlwayo community has also had a series meetings with the Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Abednico Ncube, officials of the Insiza Rural District Council, engineers from the Roads Department plus superintendent as well as members of the Joint Operations Command.
“The government is very cooperative and they are happy with what we are doing. The government has provided a grader, fuel, bolts and nuts while we have bought two sets of grader blades and provided fuel to the road superintendent,” Dube said, adding as Godlwayo, they were now pleased with the support coming from the government to their initiative.
“We are happy because the Ministry of Transport and local government are very supportive of our initiative. The government even provided a vehicle and a driver, which we used when we went to buy the grader blades.”
