Staff Reporter

Harare residents who spoke to this publication yesterday applauded Government for undertaking the major road rehabilitation programme that has made City roads passable and a joy to road users.

Most of the roads in the City were a nightmare to commuters as they were riddled with potholes. However Government seeing the neglect by the City council to rehabilitate roads took it upon itself to modernize and upgrade the roads for the benefit of citizens.

“I live in Sunningdale but the road from Seke road to our location was impassable because of huge potholes. Buses and Kombis were shunning our area as they blamed the potholes for damaging their vehicles. But we are happy now because the government has since rehabilitated and upgraded the road to international standards. Our only request is that more humps should be put on that road because motorists are now over speeding,” said Teresa Makoni of Sunningdale Two.

Cleopatra Dzuda, a resident of Waterfalls, also thanked Government for its resolve to rehabilitate the Masotsha Ndlovu road as it was now a death trap and proving costly to motorists.

“We thank Government for coming to our rescue. The City council had neglected this road (Masotsha Ndlovu) and it was now a death trap as it had gullies, not potholes, all over the place. Motorists were incurring unnecessary costs as the bad road was damaging tyres,” said Dzuda.

Enoch Mutungazhetu of Hatfield blamed the MDC for the sorry state of Harare roads as road rehabilitation was non-existent since their councillors who are the majority in Council had a laissez-faire attitude towards service delivery, which saw it take a nose dive since 2000.

“The MDC, in all its formations, are to blame for the bad roads in our City. They have been in charge of Harare since early 2000s but were not repairing potholes opting to spend time politicking,” said Mutungazhetu.

In February this year, Government declared all roads to be a state of national disaster. Shortly afterwards, the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) which was meant to improve the road network and harness the potential of the transport system in promoting economic growth was launched.

In Harare, the road rehabilitation programme saw the resurfacing of Paisley Road, which stretches from the traffic lights at corner Coventry Road and Rekayi Tangwena Road, crossing Lytton Road and Birmingham Road up to Highfield Road that starts at Sourtherton Shopping Centre.

Seke road was also rehabilitated from Coke Corner in Graniteside to Maruta Shopping Centre in Hatfield. Many other roads across Harare including Boshoff Drive that stretches from Ardebennie to Seke Road and Chiremba road have also been rehabilitated and upgraded.