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Richard Muponde Gwanda Correspondent.
THE District Development Fund (DDF) has completed the construction of a nine kilometre gravel road from Gwanda South to the new Mlambapheli Border Post which was opened on June 1. Water supplies have also been connected to the new border post. The water and road projects were carried out at a cost of over $270,000. Mlambapheli Border Post is the fourth border post between Botswana and Zimbabwe in Matabeleland South after Plumtree, Mphoengs and Maitengwe.

DDF Matabeleland South Co-ordinator, Mr Douglas Dube, said his department undertook the job in six weeks.

“The project started in earnest on April 1 and we did mobilisation and started clearing the road. This is a new road which we cleared from virgin forest. There was no road to the site of the border post. It was just a bush. It took us six weeks to do a job which was supposed to be done in six to eight months,” said Mr Dube.

“This road has shown that we’re very much capable of fulfilling our mandate in a short space of time given all the resources.

“We have also finished connecting taped water to the border. We had few resources but we managed to construct a state of the art gravel road. This is an all-weather road. It’s not a seasonal road and we’re happy to link relatives between the two countries.”

The idea of a border post at Mlambapheli was mooted about 10 years ago and Botswana finished constructing structures in 2008 and had been waiting for Zimbabwe to do the same. The new border post, which is located 120km South-West of Gwanda, started operating on June 1.