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This temporary measure has also created business opportunities for locals who help carry luggage across with some using scotch carts to ferry heavier goods.  Makeshift market stalls have been put up on both sides of the river with vendors selling foodstuffs and other basic essential to the passengers on transit including those working on the site to clear the route

Having driven for 42 kilometres from Mbalabala on the highway towards Zvishavane past a small sleepy roadside business centre recently, the site of unusual activity at the centre of the highway captured my attention.

From a distance I observed vehicles including buses parked on both sides of the road and people streaming towards the vehicles

A visitor who may not have been aware that they were approaching the Nkankezi river bridge crossing that was damaged by floods unleashed by tropical storm Dineo could have been excused for assuming that a major accident had just occurred, except that there were no flashing lights of ambulances and police vehicles, perhaps yet to arrive.

But after observing the warning signs that inform you that the road is closed and alighting to have a close look, you observe the huge crater about five metres wide and 10 metres deep from where part of the Nkankezi bridge was swept away by the floods after a dam upstream had given in to the rising waters at the height of tropical storm Dineo towards the end of last month.

The rest of the bridge is still however intact but the tree trunks and branches trapped on the rails on both sides tell the story of massive volumes of water having rolled over the bridge, supposedly a modern structure that even the engineers who designed it, must have been convinced would never be subjected to such force to the extent of the concrete structures collapsing like a deck of cards.

That is the Nkankezi river bridge site now bustling with activity as the people defy nature’s command to stop movement across a river on a road that is the major link between Bulawayo and Zvishavane, Gwanda and Zvishavane and the same route that is commonly used by those travelling from Bulawayo to Mutare through Masvingo.

The community of this area working with Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development through the food for work programme have cleared paths on both sides of the river, leading to a causeway enabling people to cross the river. A special arrangement has been made through which buses ferrying people park on either side of the bridge and exchange passengers as they cannot drive across. The arrangement has enabled the travellers to avoid using the long costly route via the city of Gweru in the Midlands Province.

This temporary measure has also created business opportunities for locals who help carry luggage across with some using scotch carts to ferry heavier goods.  Makeshift market stalls have been put up on both sides of the river with vendors selling foodstuffs and other basic essentials to the passengers on transit, including those working on the site to clear the route.

Pirate taxis that normally ferry passengers to Filabusi centre from the turn off on the highway have also moved to the site which is now the new drop off point for their passengers.

“There are no fixed charges for the services we are providing but we are making good business ferrying goods across the river,” said Alfonse Ndlovu one of the locals using a scotch cart to ferry goods.

Melisa Nyoni who sells cool drinks said most of the passengers will be very thirsty when they get to the site having sat on the bus for hours and her business is doing well unlike at the sleepy nearby Nkankezi business centre where she normally operates from. She said most buses do not stop at the business centre.

Cde Andrew Langa, the Insiza North legislator who had just toured the site, commended the local community for coming out to work on the site including businesspeople whom he said provided tractors and trucks to speed up the reconstruction work so that the road can be re-opened as soon as possible.

He said he was confident that the repairs on the main bridge would be completed within a month with the $30 million that Government had allocated to the region for repairs of infrastructure damaged by the tropical storm.

Last week Transport Minister Joram Gumbo said in the wake of the havoc brought about by the heavy rains induced by Dineo, the Government needed to mobilise at least $100 million through a special committee  chaired by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to ensure roads and bridges are repaired.

He said the committee had raised $14.5 million with main targets being bridges washed away by the floods, among them Nkankezi, Jeke Bridge along Danga-Dolo Road, Nuanetsi Bridge along Mberengwa-West Nicholson Road.