The Zimbabwe Voice

VILLAGERS in Nembudziya, Gokwe and surrounding areas are making brisk business using their own manpower or ox-driven draught power to drag cars struggling to pass the district’s flooded rivers.

So bad are the roads in the area that even area MP, Zanu-PF’s flamboyant Justice Mayor Wadyajena, has previously had to abandon an offroad sport utility vehicle after it struggled to cross a river.

Villagers said the most notorious spot during the rain season is at Kawongo Bridge along the road that connects Gokwe South and Gokwe North via Nemangwe.

A haulage truck spent the better part of yesterday stuck in the muddied road as the local youths mobilised manpower while the driver sourced the funds for the lorry to be pulled across.

“It’s a pitty that I am just an employee trying to go about my business, buy I have to pay the local folks some “tollgate fee” for the men to pull and push my truck across,” said the driver.

“I’ve been stuck at this bridge for a while day running around to source the ‘fees’. Other motorists have been paying between US$5-00 and US$10-00 for them to cross the flooded Kawongo River.

“Unfortunately, my truck is loaded and much heavier such that the locals have really gotten an opportunity to milk me dry.

“Authorities really meed to fix this problem because it crops up yea after year,” said the driver, sounding distraught after hours on end on the spot.

By around 1400hrs, his haulage truck that was carrying cement to Nembudziya was still trapped on the bridge.