By Vumani Mthiyane
Umzingwane Rural District Council (URDC) and the District Development Fund (DDF) have embarked on a road rehabilitation programme targeting all roads and bridges that were damaged by floods.
This comes after government declared that all roads in the country be declared a State of Disaster in order the facilitate the release funds for maintenance and repair works.
Umzingwane Member of Parliament, Retired Bridgadier General Levi Mayihlome told CITE that road maintenance started with Falcon-Ntabende and Mawabeni-Dula roads.
“The two road authorities are now firmly on the ground, and I was impressed by the quality of work done so far, thanks to the support from Central Government for prioritisation of road rehabilitation works throughout the country. I was briefed on the progress so far and the road maintenance priority lists, which took into account the state of the roads and the number of wards serviced by each road.
“My next visit will be on the Ministry of Transport mandated roads, especially the Mawabeni-Esibomvu road and the Bulawayo-Beitbridge highway with emphasis on Esigodini toll gate expansion which we have been assured will resume early next month,” said Mayihlome.
Matabeleland South DDF Provincial Coordinator, Moment Malandu said his province was allocated ZWL$40 million to repair road infrastructure in the province.
“The whole province was allocated $40 million and that is what we are still using. The major challenge it the contractor’s equipment which frequently breaks down thereby affecting progress,” he said, adding that as at 22 March 2021 they have repaired roads in Beitbridge, Umzingwane and Matobo.
“So far we have managed to rehabilitate, Matape Dite-Peters 30 km of motorized grading, Lutumba-Tongwe-Bulawayo main road, reshaping 13km, gravelling 2.2km, while bridge repairs we completed 82m working on protection work. As for UMzingwane, we shaped 7km of Mawabeni-Khumbudzi-Dula road while in Matobo, tow grading of 20km has been completed along Bada-Fumugwe road as well as 10 km of the Natisa-Gwandavale road,” said Malandu.
