The Sunday News
Gabriel Masvora Economic Focus
THOSE who travelled during the Heroes Day holiday would testify that most roads, even highways, are not in good shape. Some have potholes while some are very narrow showing clear signs of neglect.It is worse in the rural areas where some of the roads are now virtually impassable forcing some villagers to walk long distances to access transport to take them to access services such as hospitals.
Although this has been a long term problem for the country, it seems the heavy rains that were received in the last summer contributed greatly to the damage on most roads.
In most rural areas some bridges were washed away but surprisingly a few months before the onset of another rainy season, nothing has been done to rehabilitate most of them.
It just shows that probably by next year if nothing is done, then the situation in most areas will be worse.
Most public transport operators have been forced to withdraw their services in some routes citing bad roads further complicating lives of many people in such areas.
It is also unfortunate that the conditions of some of these roads have contributed to the increase in the number of accidents, some that have claimed many lives.
In most cases authorities have rushed to blame drivers for many accidents but it will also be interesting to ascertain to what extent the conditions of the roads have contributed to some of these accidents.
It is not only the road tarmacs that are now in a sorry state but most road signs are now absent, invisible or not serving their intended purposes.
Signs like those indicating cattle or animal crossing points are no longer relevant as these animals are now crossing at any point due to absence of fences along the roads.
This has resulted in some of the accidents being caused by cars that are hitting animals or drivers failing to see road hazards because of lack of signs.
One road which comes into the picture is the one that links Beitbridge to Harare and Chirundu.
In spite of it being the busiest and most commercially viable, the road is among the narrowest and dangerous resulting in high prevalence of road accidents.
A number of accidents have occurred along the road and many people have lost goods and lives along the highway.
The link must also be the road that is contributing the highest amounts in tollgate collections.
It is basically a link between traffic to and from South Africa not only for goods destined for Zimbabwe but many other countries north of Zimbabwe such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most of the goods comprise heavy cargo in heavy trucks which now pay a staggering $10 at each toll gate.
With at least five tollgates from Beitbridge to Chirundu, it means one truck operator pays at least $50 to cross the country.
If we count all the trucks that use the road, it means a lot of money is being collected before we even start talking about the numerous buses and small cars that also use the route.
The Government does not have money of course but the announcement of an increase in toll gate fees must somehow correspond to the way our roads are maintained.
In some cases the toll fees were raised by 100 percent and am sure most motorists are feeling the pinch hence want to see all that money they are paying being invested in rehabilitating the roads.
That is why people never really resisted the issue of tollgates when they were introduced because this was seen as one of the best ways to raise money to rehabilitate most of the roads.
With the increase of the fees last month many people still wonder whether this will result in better roads.
It’s not all gloom and doom though as Government has managed to secure some funding that has been used to rehabilitate the Plumtree-Mutare highway.
The project is set to be completed by the end of this year and so far the results have been encouraging with most areas now a marvel for the motorists.
That, however, does not mean all is well because soon after branching from that nice road, motorists have been confronted by the reality of all the other roads.
That is why Government must seriously consider making sure that as motorists pay the toll fees along the country’s roads they are not forced to think it is money going down the drain.
Nothing is as painful as paying for a service then you start thinking the money is not being used to improve that same service. Such a feeling can only come into effect when the service you get seems far removed from the money you have paid.
It is not good, no matter what excuses the Government might have to pay $50, per trip for toll gates only to discover that the car breaks down due to bad roads or worst case scenario you are involved in an accident because you have hit a beast since there is no fencing.
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration last year bought some graders, so how come there are no efforts to grade most dust roads in rural areas.
The District Development Fund is also inactive. It is time to come out of its shell and justify its existence. This issue of always hiding behind funding constraints is mainly because these organisations always look forward to being bailed out by Government.
We all know Government has no money so it is up to individual organisations to rise above this dependency syndrome and start carrying out their mandate.
We all know what a reliable and vibrant transport system can do to the economy. Let the toll gate fees be a starting point.
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