An open letter decrying the state of roads and cities in Zimbabwe

Dear Concerned Citizens and Leaders

This is an open letter to all those who dress in impeccable suits early in the morning to walk up and down the corridors of buildings housing offices of some government ministries, purporting to be presiding critical ministries in the country Zimbabwe. I am writing this letter wondering whether these people ever go out of these tall buildings, to walk in the streets of our beloved towns. I am writing this letter wondering whether these high profile executives and their ministers ever travel along our roads. I am wondering whether their occupation of these important decision making positions have led them to loose their sight, hearing organs and most importantly the conscience to feel for the people whom they chorus to represent.

As a Zimbabwean I am really disturbed with the state of our roads, which have been a source of many deaths every year. Whilst acknowledging that it is costly for a country under sanctions to maintain the roads, I am disturbed by the extent to which responsible people have opted to ignore basic and cheap things such as cutting grass which is fast becoming the source of many deaths on our roads. In my view cutting or trimming grass along the sides of the roads is basic and cheap. Anyone advocating for safe driving I believe can see the need to ensure clear visibility along the roads, but this has been ignored under the pretext of poor funding.

Driving along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge road and the Harare-Bulawayo road during the day or night is risky because of the long grass which have not been attended to for some time by those responsible. Behind these grasses are havens of thieves who make resting along the roads taboo. Interestingly, our once revered traffic police has found fertile hunting grounds for those who drive along these roads since their presence is usually hidden by the tall grass.

My humble appeal to those walking in the corridors of decision making is to start by looking at this basic thing of cutting or trimming grass before attending to potholes, the wearing and tearing away of shoulders of the roads and widening the roads.  Sparing few hundreds of dollars monthly or quarterly from the toll fees will help create jobs for the youths in the affected areas who should be given the contract to attend to the grass within the areas they reside. If this is done you would have killed many birds with one stone. That is creating jobs for youths, clearing the grass so that visibility is increased, and thereby reducing incidences of accidents.

My second concern, is the increased corrupt tendencies along our roads which seem to be siphoning money from poor people, hardworking indigenous business people and worse from the government. This phenomenon has been cited many times, but for reasons not known to many the scourge of corruption has gone unattended for too long.

Officials manning tollgates in the presence of the police are being bribed day in day out. Instead of charging the right fee to drivers of combis, trucks and buses, they charge lower fees, for which they are not issued tickets. This money is pocketed by the officials, thereby depriving the government the much needed revenue. Those in the offices, and some who drive posh 4 x 4 know this, and they just have turned a blind eye. Why then do we have toll gates, when the money is not going towards the maintenance of roads? Let alone clearing grass next to the toll gates. Something should be done urgently at these toll gates to improve the method of collecting the money without exposing the officials to corrupt tendencies induced by the drivers of trucks, combis and buses.

My heart bleeds each time I visit either Harare or Bulawayo. These are towns which are being run by mayors and fully staffed directorates, but service delivery is non-existent. The state of street lights, robots and roads leading in and out of the towns, to mention just a few, are an eye-sore. To imagine that there are local councillors presiding over the affairs of the cities, fully staffed and watching the state of the cities deteriorating every day beats my heart. I am compelled to think that these cities are run by people with very little interest in developing the cities.

Surprisingly, these incompetent people have been allowed to run down the cities at free will. Aren't there people in the corridors of power with the audacity to stamp out this 'I do not care syndrome' that has destroyed our cities. Where is the money from the rates going to? Can't people see that we are turning our cities dark cities, which promote robbery and other vices which are rampant behind the cover of darkness. Are we not ashamed to blame others when we have not attended to the logs in our own eyes? Surely, the city fathers owe it to the people in these cities who pay their hard earned cash for services which they expect from the councils.

My humble appeal is to all those who still care about our beloved Zimbabwe to rise above cheap politicking and self aggrandisement and work towards the restoration of our roads and cities to standards expected by the generality of Zimbabweans. Street lighting and functional robots are a necessity in modern day towns and cities. You cannot imagine Harare having fewer working robots than those in the border town of Beitbridge, yet Harare is the capital city. Slowing our once sunshine city has been turned into a ghost town where the law of the jungle is taking precedence on our streets. Cry the beloved mother city, slowly dying under the watchful eyes of the city fathers.

This open letter is a reminder to all those who everyday go to work on the pretext of serving the people to at least once listen to their consciences and hear what they say. You can't continue to betray the people, to whom you owe your livelihood. They deserve better roads, better cities, and above all impeccable service delivery. You need to go back to basics and Zimbabwe will be back to its glory days. After all Zimbabweans are renowned for their hardwork and resilience, and their never ending patience.
I hope, and believe that something will be down. The sooner the better.

Kennedy Mapesa Mandaza