By Dorrothy Moyo| Harare & Bulawayo | 2 June 2025
As Zimbabweans reel from the unveiling of the flawed $88 million Trabablas Interchange, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has sparked new controversy by awarding five more road contracts—this time for the long-dilapidated Bulawayo–Victoria Falls Road.
The 435km stretch, crucial to Zimbabwe’s tourism and trade sectors, is finally set for rehabilitation. But coming just days after the unfinished, flood-risk-prone Trabablas Interchange was commissioned with crumbling embankments, missing road markings, and wooden signposts, critics are asking: how can the same government justify issuing more contracts without accountability for the last scandal?
A Dangerous Pattern of “Build Now, Fix Later”?
In a press briefing on Sunday, Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Minister Richard Moyo confirmed that five contractors had been selected from eight applicants. He praised President Mnangagwa for “prioritising this highway,” while revealing that Transport Minister Felix Mhona will launch the project on Thursday in Gwayi.
However, no public details were provided about which companies were selected, what their past performance has been, or whether competitive bidding was involved — an omission that instantly triggered alarm bells.
“After what we saw at Trabablas, Zimbabweans are owed full transparency,” said a civil engineering analyst. “We just saw $88 million go into a visibly defective interchange. Now we’re trusting the same leadership with another major artery? On what basis?”
Tourism Lifeline or Another Sinking Pit?
The Bulawayo–Victoria Falls Road is vital to Zimbabwe’s tourism economy, linking the country’s second-largest city with Victoria Falls and key border posts into Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia. Years of potholes, erosion, and collapsing shoulders have made it a high-risk route — frequently blamed for fatal accidents and soaring logistics costs.
Yet the concern isn’t about whether the road should be rehabilitated — it’s how and by whom.
“Tourism depends on safety, predictability, and quality infrastructure,” said one Victoria Falls-based tour operator. “If this becomes another Trabablas-type showpiece for looting and corner-cutting, it could do more harm than good.”
Missing: Independent Oversight
What remains conspicuously absent from both the Trabablas and Bulawayo–Vic Falls projects is independent oversight and engineering review. Zimbabwe’s public works continue to be plagued by no-tender awards, opaque cost escalations, and politically connected contractors with questionable track records — such as Fossil Contracting, central to the Trabablas consortium.
An audit of the Trabablas project is yet to be made public. Meanwhile, reports of structural shortcuts, brittle sand embankments, and missing basic road elements have become viral symbols of national mismanagement.
The Real Test Begins
President Mnangagwa may be counting on ribbon-cutting optics and grand pronouncements to shift focus from Trabablas. But the public is watching.
Until full disclosure of contractors, details of the financing, and a published timetable of deliverables are released, many Zimbabweans will remain skeptical — and rightly so.
After all, if $88 million couldn’t buy paint and proper drainage in Harare, what hope does Bulawayo–Vic Falls have under the same system?
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RELATED QUESTIONS ZIMBABWEANS ARE ASKING:
• Will these five contracts be subject to independent audit from day one?
• Are any of the contractors linked to the same firms behind Trabablas?
• Has government learned anything — or is this just Trabablas 2.0 on a longer road?