The Sunday News
Nozibelo Maphosa, Sunday News Reporter
TSHOLOTSHO Rural District Council has set a budget of $330 000 for this year’s Periodic and Routine Road maintenance programme aimed at improving the state of the roads in the district.
Mr Themba Moyo, the Tsholotsho RDC chief executive officer said this year on Phase One they would be focusing on the 16km Lupilanenda Road and Kapanyanangamo Road which is 20km long. The construction, he said, would be done by Truck Hospital Group.
“This time we will be focusing on the 16km Lupilanenda road. A total of 10 kilometres of the road has been graded and the remaining six kilometers will be completed soon. We are already working with Truck Hospital, they will be doing all the construction work, some of their equipment is already on site,” said Mr Moyo.
Mr Moyo said they would also grade 26km of a road in Ward 20 in the resettlement areas as the area has a challenge of service provision.
“We will also rehabilitate the 26km road in Ward 20. We have seen that the ward is usually disadvantaged of all the other wards. The road will give an opportunity to farmers to access the market easily, attract investors because often people shun places because of the poor roads,” said Mr Moyo.
The CEO said 23 kilometres in the Tsholotsho growth point would also be resurfaced including upgrading the Tsholotsho Bus Terminus.
“We want to resurface 3 000 square metres and upgrade the bus terminus, however, this will be Phase Two and it will begin as soon we complete Phase One, that’s when we will put tarmac on the growth point’s roads and set a budget for Phase Two,” said Mr Moyo.
Phase Two also includes the construction of the roundabout from Bulawayo. Mr Moyo said this would also include splitting roads leading to Sipepa, Bulawayo, Tsholotsho Stadium and Tsholotsho centre. The roundabout will have solar lighting.
“We will construct a traffic circle (roundabout) at the Bulawayo road. The Sipepa Road will be split along with the Bulawayo, Tsholotsho Stadium and Tsholotsho centre road. We will also provide solar lighting at the roundabout for night visibility,” said Mr Moyo.
Mr Moyo said they were hoping to complete the programme before the beginning of the 2016/2017 rainy season.
“We expect to complete this programme before the 2016/2017 rainy season. We want to make sure that there is a good road network because during the rainy season roads are dangerous,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the construction of road infrastructure would come as a development that would dovetail into their plans to turn the growth point into a town.
He said once Tsholotsho was a town, it would increase its real estate market and attract investors.
Meanwhile, Binga RDC will also construct a two kilometre radius road within its business center this year. The council chairman of Binga RDC Mr Dube Munkombwe said the road would be an access road to the business centre.
“The newly refurbished roads will attract investors to RDC’s and bring business to the community,” he said.
Many district councils are inaccessible due to the poor roads, for example Binga whose road from Harare through Gokwe is 540 kilometres but due to the poor state of the road portion between Chitekete and Siabuwa, travellers endure a 900-kilometre journey through Bulawayo and Dete.
