John Ndlovu
Bulawayo residents have bemoaned the dire state of the city’s roads which are posing danger to both pedestrians and motorists alike.
In a snap survey carried out by Zim GBC News the dusty Cowdray Park came out tops as the suburb with worst roads with about 66% followed by Luveve having 15% Nkulumane with 12% votes, Mpopoma with 7% while Lobengula and Nketa had the least votes of 4% and 2% respectively.
One intrigued resident from Luveve Suburb Sakhile Moyo implored the City Fathers to take road rehabilitation as a matter of urgency as they pose a major threat to the residents as evidenced by accidents.
“All major roads are in a very bad state so the City Council must take road rehabilitation seriously and since a private player has been employed to manage parking in the city center they should also play a part of that money in road rehabilitation.”Moyo said.
A resident from Magwegwe surbubs Nkosi Mkwananzi stated that it is of paramount significance for residents to place politics and differences aside and unite towards road rehabilitation a situation which getting worse by the day in the City of Kings and Queens.
“I don’t blame anyone here what I think to needs to be done is we need to work together politics aside because at the end of the day we are all Zimbabweans.” Mkwananzi stated
Another resident from North-End suburbs who spoke on condition of anonymity also reiterated sentiments echoed by other residents of bad state of roads as she said that they are causing accidents and commotion between drivers and pedestrians.
“I think roads should be maintained more often as they cause accidents here in North-End we are facing the same problem especially the roads by our shops they are in a bad state. Although residents have tried to put sand it does not help for long.” She said
The Bulawayo City Council are the rightful custodians of road maintenance and rehabilitation at the City. However efforts to establish a comment from the City Fathers were fruitless as City of Bulawayo’s Corporate Communications Officer Bongiwe Ngwenya claimed that she did not see the messages sent in both her mail addresses (work and personal).
The bad state of roads in Bulawayo have been a major concern in recent months as evidenced by the Luveve Road which has been in dilapidated state.
Last year in November the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Felix Mhona promised to instantly rehabilitate the road in question at a workshop in Bulawayo, but the situation has taken to worst with work that was started by BCC is nowhere near completion.
The detours which were opened for traffic have worsened the other stretch of the road as well as causing untold congestion.
Meanwhile, the vast Cowdray Park suburb leads in derelict road infrastructure as the neglect by the local Authority of the city’s road network continues unabated.