'No to increase in tollgates in the absence of transparency, accountability' - MDC-T

The MDC-T is appalled by the decision of the Zanu PF regime to roll out 32 additional tollgates across the country at a time when the majority of the people of Zimbabwe are living in abject poverty and squalor.

In 2014, the Zanu PF regime collected a total amount of US$132 million from the 24 tollgates that are already in place. It is abundantly clear that the sum of US$132 million that was collected in 2014 from the 24 tollgate has been misused and abused by the rogue Zanu PF regime. The country's major roads remain in a dilapidated condition and indeed, there is no single tarred road in Zimbabwe that is not littered with huge potholes.

Motorists are called to pay money at the country's existing 24 tollgates but apparently, the money is not chanelled to the intended purpose of road maintenance as well as road construction. Zimbabwe's roads are now a death trap, mainly due to the failure by the Zanu PF
regime to properly and constantly maintain the country's highways using money collected from the existing 24 tollgates. Instead of maintaining the country's roads using the tollgate fees, the rogue Zanu PF regime diverts the money collected at the tollgates to pay civil servants' salaries as well as bankrolling the wasteful expenditure of the bloated bureaucracy that includes several ministers and deputy ministers.

The decision to construct 32 additional tollgates across the country is thus, solely meant to extort more money from motorists in order to fund Robert Mugabe's extended holiday jamborees as well as to pay for his numerous overseas trips, mainly to the far East.

The MDC-T strenuously condemns the Zanu PF regime's decision to construct 32 additional tollgates instead of using the money collected at the existing 24 tollgates to rehabilitate the country's collapsed road infrastructure.

We have stated it before, and we repeat it here and now: that Zanu PF regime is not fit for purpose and that the people of Zimbabwe shall continue to wallow in poverty for as long as this corrupt and rogue regime remains in office.

The      calls upon the patriotic people of Zimbabwe to thunderously oppose and resist the proposed construction of 32 additional tollgates.

MDC-T: Equal opportunities for all

Obert Chaurura Gutu
MDC-T National Spokesperson.