By Settlement Chikwinya| In most urban cities and towns it is now normal that during peak hours drivers have to endure long ques at traffic intersections as vehicles nevigate the congestion caused by a delapidated road infrastructure that was constructed Pre Independence and can no longer cope with the volume of traffic that has more than quadrupled.
In most major cities and in particular Harare, the last seven days preceding Christmas holidays has seen traffic congestion in the CBD for more than 12 hours from dawn right up to 10pm.
Literally all intersections are jammed and it can take more than an hour for one to drive accross an intersection.
Traffic lights even if they are working are no longer being respected and most intersections have no Traffic Police to assist drivers.
The rains have made the situation worse.
It is imperative to look at why Zimbabwe faces such a challenge especially around this time of the year when people are driving in and out of cities as they go about their holiday activities.
Bottom line is that there has been no effort to develop our road infrastructure to accommodate the growing envelope of motor vehicles largely driven by importation of Pre used cars mostly from Japan.
The road infrastructure that existed Pre Independence remains largely the same today if not worse due to lack of maintenance.
Most cities in our neighbouring countries have off ramps that decongest the cities of vehicles that have no business passing through the CBD.
Three to four lane feed in and relief roads are constructed as one drives in and out of the CBD.
In Zimbabwe we still have at best a double lane feeding into Harare CBD and this is not commensurate with the volume of traffic in Harare and therefore leads to congestion.
The 2021 budget allocated only funds ment for routine maintenance to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, this means that there will be no development again to expand our roads.
ZINARA is collecting all licence funds and remitting very little to local authorities. We must get back to a situation where local authorities collect road user fees from residents and use that money to develop local road infrastructure.
Our local roads now have more potholes than surfaced areas due to non maintenance and as long as ZINARA is collecting the funds instead of local authorities, no single local authority will be able to deliver on road maintenance.
It is hightime citizens call for local resource mobilization and use in line with principles of Devolution.
In the presence of all these frustrating congestion conditions on our roads, the MDC Alliance calls for patients and courtesy among drivers to minimise accidents and costs that eat into our already erroded purses.
Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a safe 2021 ahead.
Covid is real , isolate, wash your hands and always put on your mask in public.

Regards
Hon Settlement Chikwinya
MDC Alliance Secretary for Transport and Logistics