Gumbo must resign over bad state of roads

TRANSPORT minister Jorum Gumbo must resign because he has failed to find a solution to the poor state of the country's road network, in particular, among other failures, the opposition People's Democratic Party has said.

Gumbo recently admitted in an address to Parliament that the government has not done enough to resolve the infrastructure crisis facing the transport sector.

Bulawayo PDP organising secretary Bekithemba Nyathi said the Zanu-PF regime was highly responsible for the accidents that were claiming lives on a daily basis.

"As PDP we are still shocked not only by the unfortunate accident, but more by the regime's failure to take responsibility and at least apologise to the family. We would like to call upon the Minister of Transport Gumbo to resign or better still (President) Robert Mugabe's whole administration," Nyathi said.

"Ours is a case of a failed State and a collapsed economy and the current crop of political players have no moral capacity to turn around the fortunes of this country hence the call for a National Transition Authority."

Nyathi challenged the families of the accident victims to sue the government for negligence in terms of failure to rehabilitate road infrastructure despite the motorist's paying out money at tollgates.

A recent visit at Esigodini tollgate established that there were potholes even just before and after it.

Gumbo also described the country's roads as deplorable "death traps."

"You cannot drive safely as there is a danger to your car and to yourself because of potholes, particularly when it is raining because you cannot even tell whether you are going to hit a pothole, as it is just water. It is even worse in rural areas because the roads have been swept away. Even on tarred roads, you would wish you were driving on a dust road than a tarred road," he told the Senate.

He, however, blamed the state of the roads on Cyclone Dineo which hit parts of the country recently.