Mtshabezi river bridge maroons Gwanda town AGAIN

The notorious Mtshabezi River bridge in Gwanda is once again overflowing and blocking off the old Gwanda Bulawayo Road.

The river has been overflowing since the late hours of Thursday night up to the time of this article 10 hours later its still flooded. The river has completely cut off the link between Gwanda Town and the town's mines of Blanket, Vumbachikwe, Freda and the Wenlock area.

Also completely unreachable is the new Gwanda Mount Cazalet Cemetery which is on the other side of the river. School buses from the mines could not deliver the children to school. A truck loaded with fuel meant for the mines has been stationed at Gwanda Town since last night after three failed attempts to cross the river.

Residents of Gwanda have expressed their anger on the bridge over a long time and there seems to be no action coming from government. A resident interviewed said that they are completely fed up with talking about the same thing.

"We are fed up talking one and the same thing with no action coming through. We don't know what government is really thing about this."



The member of parliament for Gwanda Central Edison Gumbo again couldn't be reached for comment. His aide a Mr Fungai Mpofu could not be reached for comment and the constituency office was locked all day.

The Chairman of the Interim Gwanda Residents Association Mr Gilbert Dube said that association has been receiving numerous complaints from residents about the bridge particularly on their failure to access the Mount Cazalet Cemetery. He attributed the current flooding to the spilling of Mtshabezi Dam upstream due to heavy rains.



"We understand that Mtshabezi dam is spilling and so the flooding downstream but that's no excuse for Government's failure to build a proper bridge over the river," said Dube.

"We will seriously pursue the issue with the Members of parliament."