From the onset of his rule President Emmerson Mnangagwa flagged out restoration of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure such as roads and railways as one of the biggest deliverables for his administration.
Over the years, government has been claiming that it is exceeding expectations when it came to delivering on infrastructure.
The authorities would quickly point to the rehabilitation of the Beitbridge-Harare highway, which remains incomplete.
Authorities also announced last year that work on the dilapidated Harare to Chirundu highway was about to commence.
Last week, the state of the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway took centre stage after a viral image of three people believed to be tourists posing for a photo while sitting inside a huge pothole surfaced, which was purportedly taken along the heavily damaged road.
The government was quick to deny that the image was taken on the road, which links the rest of the country to the iconic Victoria Falls. It also links the rest of the country to Zimbabwe’s biggest wildlife habitat, the Hwange National Park.
The Transport and Infrastructure Development ministry said: “the images in the post do not correspond to any section of the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway.”
“The sections requiring urgent attention are currently being addressed through a collaborative effort between the Department of Roads and Bitumen World. Work is already underway, with teams camped in Hwange, Halfway, and Insuza to ensure the road is rehabilitated efficiently,” it added.
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It was akin to denying the obvious as Zimbabweans took to social media with evidence of their experiences on the road that has seen years of neglect by government.
The government may try to wriggle itself out of this one, but the truth is that the state of the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road is a graphic demonstration of its failure to deliver on its promises to improve the country’s infrastructure.
This is despite the fact that millions of dollars have been spent on roads since 2018. The government invested heavily on urban roads and gave contracts to certain companies, but there has been improvement on the state of roads.
Most of the roads were poorly done and they are now infested with potholes.
Mnangagwa’s government has also not done anything tangible to resuscitate the railway infrastructure and to some extent this has contributed to the deterioration of major highways such as the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road, which is now used for freight movement with heavy duty trucks.
The controversy generated by the pothole image must serve as wake-up call to the government to take the issue of infrastructure decay very seriously.
