Nkayi Road an emotional issue – Minister Mhona

27 Nov, 2022 - 00:11 0 Views
Nkayi Road an emotional issue – Minister Mhona Minister Felix Mhona

The Sunday News

Andile Tshuma, Sunday News Reporter

TRANSPORT and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona has described the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road as an emotional issue that requires urgent attention saying the Government was making efforts to ensure funds were made available for the expedition of construction work at the most critical parts of the stretch to make it trafficable. 

Speaking to Sunday News on the sidelines of a corporate governance meeting for boards of public entities last week, the minister said the Government was aware of the years of false starts to repairs at the Nkayi Road as well as other roads in the region.

He promised that his ministry was going to attend to it as he was aware of the importance of the road.  

Minister Mhona said Government was in the process of finalising due processes to ensure that at least 15 kilometres of the most critical stretch of Nkayi Road was attended to in the coming weeks, while the greater portion of the road would be prioritised from the $144.5 billion budget allocation. 

“Those roads are emotional roads. We say they are emotional roads because their state impacts negatively on the economic performance of our country. They are at the centre of a number of the citizenry, in terms of how they view such roads and certain political discourses have emerged but I assure you they are such important roads. It is sad that over the years, roads such as Nkayi and Tsholotsho Roads were neglected. 

“And to show that we have not forgotten about them, even during the pre-budget seminar, the Minister of Finance (Prof Mthuli Ncube) actually had to single out the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road, to say that road has to be done. As we speak, we are done with the procurement processes, and in very few weeks, you will see my team moving on site to proceed with the works,” said Minister Mhona. 

The minister called for public private partnerships which he said could help to ensure that resources were evenly spread out and that more work was covered in less time, to allow Government and ministries the flexibility to take on multiple projects simultaneously. 

“I can assure the citizenry that not necessarily the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road only, but within the region, there are some roads that are very topical. We can cite the Bulawayo-Kezi-Gwanda- Maphisa, just to mention a few. 

“We have got a number of such roads. What we have done is, we cannot do the entire stretch completely, but we need to start now. For instance, the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road, we will just go and do the 15 kilometres now as a matter of urgency, then we priorities the bigger chunk from our 2023 budget allocation. 

“I can assure you that we will soon be doing all our roads. We also invite private partnerships together with the Government so that we partake in the exercise of rebuilding our roads. I’m happy that we are having such arrangements, where private player together with Government can take a stretch, rehabilitate it and collect revenue through tolling, that’s one way of availing funding for such infrastructural projects,” he said. 

He said the development thrust was built on the instructive wisdom of President Mnangagwa of leaving no-one and no place behind as the country strains towards Vision 2030.

“The ministry is mandated by the Roads Act to take over neglected roads. If you see such roads, know that we are coming and we therefore call for patience and please tolerate us as we have other competing projects that need the same resources. But I do concur that such roads have to be rehabilitated,” said Minister Mhona. 

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