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Harare Bureau
BELARUS has offered the country a facility of 500 buses to modernise its mass public transport system, as the recent visit by President Mnangagwa to Eurasia begins to yield fruit. The Head of State visited Belarus as well as Russia, Azerjaiban and Kazakhstan in a week-long tour of the subcontinent.

In their meeting, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to give Zimbabwe 500 buses, a shot in the arm for Zimbabwe which is moving towards mass public transportation in line with both the Transitional Stabilisation Programme and Vision 2030 blueprints.

Briefing journalists after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said: “Belarus has offered to help develop Zimbabwe as a regional transport hub using its own experiences. Belarus also offered to provide Zimbabwe with an initial 500 buses with the possibility of increasing the number in future.”

“The TSP talks about modernising public transport and this is part of that. We know our people are suffering a lot and Government interventions have given a relief to our people in the urban areas but there is still a lot more work to be done to make sure we give that kind of relief to people in rural areas and inter-city.”

It is estimated that over one million people use the urban transport system across Zimbabwe daily.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said Government was looking at the latest offer.

“It is really an offer from Belarus that we have to evaluate and see how we can obviously take,” he said.

“It’s not free as you can imagine, it costs money. We are looking into this offer to see whether we can complete and consummate it but certainly 500 additional buses will make a huge difference in the mass transport system. We will progress this offer from our Belarusian friends but for now it’s an offer on the table that we need to consummate.”