By Lungelo Ndhlovu

Citizens in rural communities of Tsholotsho are stranded and unable to attend any emergencies because of the deplorable state of road networks and shortages of buses.

Thembelani Ncube, a transport operator who plies the Tsholotsho route indicated he has resorted to using a long meandering route to get to Tsholotsho.

“I use Solusi Road to try and skirt the dilapidated Nyamandlovu Road. This is very costly because I use a lot of fuel as compared to going direct to Tsholotsho. As a result, I have also reduced trips and I only go there only on Saturday and Sunday,” he said.

Ncube also indicated, at some point, Nkayi villagers neighbouring Tsholotsho were threatened with starvation as the department of social welfare failed to deliver maize to the district due to the bad state of Bulawayo-Nkayi Road.

Senator Alice Dube from Tsholotsho confirmed the issue was a cause for concern and urged the government, during the questions and answer session in parliament this Thursday, to urgently address the plight faced by the rural communities.

Dube also indicated the transport situation has been worsened by the poor and deplorable state of the roads which has taken a long time to be fixed by the government.

Responding to Senator Dube’s questions, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Develop, Felix Mhona indicated the government was seized with the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho and Bulawayo-Nkayi roads in Matabeleland North which are in deplorable state for a very long time.

“A number of the roads in Matabeleland were not being rehabilitated for a long time and I want to thank our listening president. He has then said let’s go and rehabilitate those and as we speak, we have got about four roads that are very important emotional roads which we have undertaken in terms of rehabilitation,” he said.


“As I speak Bulawayo-Tsholotsho is being attended to now. My team is involved with rehabilitating Bulawayo-Tsholotsho, Nkayi just to mention a few. To indicate that the second republic is seized with the idea of rehabilitating roads and those that we have not started, we have done the procurement and we are done with the procurement.

“So, I can assure the Honourable Senator that Tsholotsho we are coming, we might not do in terms of the numbers that we can expect, where we need to start now, even we start on a five kilometre that we are doing now it doesn’t mean we will end on that strip, but it is just the starting process. So, I want to assure you that this is what we are working on,” he added.

Meanwhile, the government recently sliced through the knot late last week with the kombi deal and bus charge deal to be finalised to address urban transport nightmares across the country, forgetting the rural communities.

“The issues to do with Zupco especially in the communities that we come from, several Zupco are earmarked within the cities. The president is not just taking in charge of cities where Zupco is plying those routes and the idea of inviting the private players we must commend and applaud our president after realising there was an outcry on transport provision,” Mhona said.