Mugabe's useless foreign jaunts to blame for poor state of infrastructure

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's "useless" foreign jaunts are to blame for the poor state of infrastructure in the country, the opposition MDC has said.

The party led by former Industry minister Welshman Ncube, has blamed the ruling Zanu-PF government ineptitude for the unfortunate loss of lives, including last week's horror crash that claimed 13 lives in Bulawayo.

Thirteen people died on the spot, while four others were seriously injured and admitted at the United Bulawayo Hospital after a commuter omnibus, which was carrying a dead body, collided with a haulage truck just outside the country's second largest city.

In a statement, MDC spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi said his party was saddened and outraged by the unnecessary loss of life.

"It is sad to note that it has to take nothing short of the loss of precious lives for government to begin to take notice of the serious disrepair of our roads. It is our hope that government will acknowledge and accept responsibility for these unnecessary deaths and swiftly make reparations to the families of the deceased," Chihwayi said.

"The cause of this accident like many others before it is the negligence and rampant corruption inside President Robert Mugabe's government. The government and in particular the Transport ministry must be brought to book over the horrific deterioration of our roads."

Chihwayi said it seems Mugabe's government is happy with increasing the road death toll, while he gallivants across the globe.

"Instead of improvements on our roads all we are seeing are traffic police officers at literally every 5km stretch whose sole goal is to further milk motorists of their hard-earned cash. Zinara needs to come clean about why it continues to collect revenue from our roads without repairing them for years on end," he said.

The party's Matabeleland South chairperson Pilate Ndebele said the government's declaration of some roads as a state of disaster will not help matters.

"This government is now blaming the destruction of the infrastructure on the rains, forgetting that since independence they have not been rehabilitating the infrastructure," Ndebele said, adding devolution was the answer to the problem of infrastructure decay.