IN THE PRESS

WHEN The Herald announced “Harare roads declared a national disaster”, it sounded like a very dry joke that left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Here were two whole ministries — that of Transport and Infrastructural Development; and Local Government, Public Works and National Housing — joining forces with City of Harare to make this rather belated pronouncement. The authorities had finally realised that Harare’s roads were now a death-trap, never mind the stories and the pitiable images that the media has been bombarding them with since the onset of the rainy season.

Their brilliant solution to addressing this “national disaster” was to “engage companies so as to carry out road maintenance and patch them”.

It didn’t occur to them that the roads have been patched before, countless times, but they keep deteriorating every rainy season. It didn’t come to the authorities’ minds that maybe what we really need is to source enough funds to re-surface the roads.

“We will actually write to the Office of the President and Cabinet and waiver some of the requirements because we have a state of disaster,” thundered Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, sounding like a very hard worker who had come to our rescue.

Honourable Minister, you didn’t have to wait until all the roads were impassable for you to do something about it. The roads did not turn into a “national disaster” over night.

You were watching as the potholes multiplied, so was your transport counterpart, Minister Gumbo.

We sincerely hope that those waivers will not be abused to line a few pockets.

That will be the real national disaster.