By Flata Kavinga
Kwekwe City Council has established an emergency plan to address the worsening state of roads across the city, Mayor Councillor Albert Zinhanga has said, citing persistent rainfall as a major challenge delaying repair works.
In an interview, Cllr Zinhanga acknowledged growing public concern over the poor condition of roads, which has been widely raised by residents on social media platforms.
“We read social media posts and comments by residents on the bad state of our roads, and we are quite aware that most of the roads are in bad shape,” said Cllr Zinhanga.
He said council officials recently conducted an assessment tour of several roads around the city, which confirmed the extent of the damage and prompted the formulation of an emergency response plan.
“We did a tour of most of the roads in our city and we have seen that they are in bad shape, and we have set an emergency plan to work on the roads,” he said.
However, the mayor said continuous rainfall over the past several days has made it difficult for council to commence repair works such as gravelling and tar patching.
“For the past five days it has been raining continuously and it is not giving us enough time to get on the roads to work. We cannot do gravelling or tar patching when it’s raining,” said Cllr Zinhanga.
He added that flash rains experienced in the city had further compounded the situation, a challenge not unique to Kwekwe but affecting many local authorities across the country.
Despite the setbacks, Cllr Zinhanga said council remains committed to addressing the road infrastructure challenges once weather conditions improve, amid increasing pressure from residents for urgent action.
Kwekwe, like many urban centres, has seen its road network deteriorate due to a combination of heavy rains, limited resources and ageing infrastructure.
