Msunduza roads rehabilitated
MBABANE – After years of potholes torture for Msunduza residents, it appears their prayers for proper road rehabilitation are now being answered.
This follows that the Municipal Council of Mbabane is already embarking on an exercise to fix the road that has been giving trouble to not only to private cars users, but public transport operators who use the pothole-riddled Msunduza road on a daily basis.
Lucky Tsabedze, the Council’s Public Information Officer, confirmed that the road from Msuduza Sports Ground to the market area has temporarily been closed to allow the rehabilitation programme.
This road is known as R Mando Gebuza Street, named after former president of Mozambique, who apparently has historical links with Msunduza. Apparently, the former president had a house in Msunduza many years ago. “That road has already been closed for the rehabilitation after an advert was issued in the Times SUNDAY on this project. This will be closed for a period of four to six weeks while workers do full rehabilitation of the road. This means the workers are now excavating the road to ensure the fixing of the road. The second phase of the project (from Msunduza market to Solanis) will be done after the completion of this one,” Tsabedze said.
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He added that the completion of the current project and the second phase would be determined by the weather conditions. “As you might be aware, when it is raining, it becomes difficult for the workers to continue with the job and unfortunately, we cannot predict the rainy days,” Tsabedze said.
He said they were trying to accommodate the possibility of wet weather, assuring the public that they would make announcements through an advert on when the second phase of this project would commence. Tsabedze mentioned that the council decided to start with this road because of the endless complaints it has been receiving from people about its state.
He was, however, quick to clarify that they are not rehabilitating the said road on the basis of the complaints from people.
“We are rehabilitating this road because it is under schedule. We have engineers who are skilled on the job and they are able to determine which road has high traffic volume going in and out of the city centre. Even for residential areas, we priotirise such projects based on the same. Tsabedze thanked the Msunduza people for supporting this project. As a council, he said they were thrilled about the positive spin-offs the project would bring to the area.
“We have asked people to follow road signs and it is good that they appreciate what we are doing because it will mean good infrastructure for the community at Msunduza. People must understand that we are guided by our budget when embarking on such projects,” he said.
Tsabedze was asked how much the project cost, to which he promised to verify these facts after touching base with the relevant department responsible.
Mbabane East Member of Parliament (MP) Welcome Dlamini was full of praise to the council for this project.
“What I can say is that finally, the cries of Msunduza people have been heard. That road is the main one, and its condition was making it difficult for those driving in and out of the location,” he said.
“So, the rehabilitation of the road sounds like sweet melody to our ears and we are very happy. It will make it easy for pedestrians and motorists to travel.”
Dlamini, however, stated clearly that he was hoping the other routes will be taken care of and will not end with this project.
“As people of Msunduza, we sometimes feel abandoned when we see no development projects happening. So, when you see such projects finally happening and it is not like they are here to close potholes, you get excited. They are doing a full rehabilitation of the road with a new tar road, which is something that we commend. This is what we call service delivery, this is the spirit of nkwe! It is clear that the council heard what the King said during Sibaya,” he said.
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Dlamini then revealed that he had a meeting with the council officials on Wednesday to discuss the cause of action going forward.
“It was a positive meeting and we are hoping that going forward, people will see the results that council and MP have established a good working relationship.
“There is an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) we are supposed to sign involving Mbabane East and Mbabane West for the Council. It was part of our meeting yesterday (Wednesday).
“This MoU will outline how we are going to complement each other in terms of service delivery. We will have monthly meetings, where will discuss progress reports on service delivery.
“I can tell Mbabane East people with confidence that the council this time around is willing to work with us,” he said.