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Dr Joram Gumbo

Walter Mswazie, Masvingo Bureau
SCORES of families living along the Masvingo-Beitbridge Road will soon be relocated to pave way for the Beitbridge-Harare Highway dualisation project set to commence by the end of September, an official has said.

Villagers in Chief Nemauzhe area that includes Zinhumwe, Mazowani, some which are near Maringire Business Centre, among others, will be affected.
Masvingo provincial administrator Mr Fungai Mbetsa said some families in parts of Chivi will be moved but modalities to identify where they should go have not been done yet.

“A number of families living near the Masvingo–Beitbridge Highway in Chivi District are going to be relocated to pave way for the dualisation of the road.

However, I am not yet privy to the finer details on the exact number of families to be affected,” said Mr Mbetsa.

A businessman at Maringire Business Centre along the same road, Mr John Hungoidza, said people in the district have been informed that relocation would be inevitable as the dualisation project would affect many homesteads.

“It is obvious that some families will be relocated to pave way for the dualisation project. The message has already been circulated and most villagers around here are fully aware of what is going to happen. However, the fear is that money for compensation might not be readily available,” Mr Hungoidza said.

Contacted for comment, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo said affected families would be compensated.

“It is obvious that whenever there is road construction, some structures including people’s homesteads will be destroyed. The road dualisation is a national project and villagers can have their fields or homes destroyed. In such cases Government will compensate and relocate them,” said Dr Gumbo.

He said the contractor is presently doing the assessments after which a course of action will be taken depending on what has been discovered.

“We are no longer actively involved in the dualisation project as we have awarded the tender to Geiger International. The company personnel is on the ground making assessments on how many homesteads, fields, fruit trees and other villagers’ assets will be affected. We cannot tell how many are going to be affected yet but the fact is that such developments will leave some homesteads destroyed,” Dr Gumbo said.

He said the Government would only be monitoring progress and whether the contractor is doing the work according to specifications or using local engineers.

He said the issue of relocation and compensation would be dealt with by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

The highway project is being done by Geiger International but the Government has ensured that 40 percent of the project will be done by Zimbabwean companies.

The long awaited dualisation project will also see at least 300 000 people getting jobs.