Roadblocks to be dismantled, promises Mudenda

Parliament is in talks with the Home Affairs ministry to eliminate "useless" highway roadblocks adversely affecting tourism and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the speaker of the national Assembly Jacob Mudenda said yesterday.

Mudenda yesterday told delegates at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) annual congress that the barricades being manned by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers had become a "nuisance" to locals as well as tourists.

"I am happy because we are receiving positive response from the ministry of Home Affairs.

"These roadblocks will be reduced… I really hope and pray so, but that is the assurance they have given us as Parliament. Mathematically, it means at the moment we have 2,5 roadblocks for every 100 kilometres," Mudenda said.

"We have observed as Parliament that there is no law concerning roadblocks and they are just being erected willy-nilly.

"Tourists driving from Beitbridge to Victoria Falls on average go through about 20 roadblocks. They have been checked at the border and passed through Customs and Immigration.

"In Tanzania, roadblocks have been reduced from 58 to 15. In Kenya, they used to have 35 police roadblocks between Mombasa and Malawi but by 2013 all road blocks had been removed. Now you bring an investor from outside and they land at Harare International Airport, they go through Customs and Immigration, just as they leave the airport where there is our Independence banner, there is a roadblock!

"Can this investor be a criminal in that five metres they would have travelled? Come on, this does not make sense.

"Let us not be our own enemies against strengthening the Ease-of-Doing Business," he said.

This comes as the police recently announced they would soon reduce the number of roadblocks following bitter complaints from motorists.