HARARE — A Zimbabwean senator says a parliamentary delegation took nearly 15 hours to travel from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls, highlighting the deteriorating condition of one of the country’s key tourism routes.
Senator Irene Zindi told the Senate that lawmakers experienced the lengthy journey during an outreach program on energy and security, blaming the condition of the road and detours along the route.
“We spent almost 15 hours to Victoria Falls from Bulawayo because of the bad state of the road,” Zindi said during debate on a motion calling for rehabilitation and maintenance of Zimbabwe’s road network.
She warned that conditions could become more difficult with the onset of the rainy season, particularly along sections between Lupane and Victoria Falls where detours pass through Kalahari sand.
“The rainy season is fast approaching and what is going to happen to those who will use that road during the rainy season when we failed to travel properly during the dry season?” she said.
Zindi said poor road conditions were also hurting tourism businesses along the route.
She said that during the parliamentary trip, lawmakers encountered a lodge operator in Hwange who told them business had declined because of the state of the road.
“She said they no longer have business at all because of the bad road,” Zindi told senators.
The senator called on Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona to present a ministerial statement to Parliament explaining the government’s plans to address the country’s deteriorating roads.
Zindi also blamed overloaded heavy trucks for contributing to road damage and called for stronger enforcement of weight limits.
She said trucks transporting minerals including lithium and chrome, as well as cargo moving through Zimbabwe from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, were placing additional pressure on the country’s road network.
The debate also saw senators question whether money collected through toll fees, vehicle licences and other road-user charges was translating into sustained improvements to the road network.
Senators argued that Zimbabwe needed to shift from repeatedly rehabilitating deteriorated roads toward a system in which roads were continuously maintained before they reached the point of requiring expensive reconstruction.
Senators said some roads rehabilitated under emergency road programs four or five years ago had already deteriorated.
