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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau 

GOVERNMENT will in the next six months upgrade communication facilities in Beitbridge and Plumtree where most people are relying on foreign network services providers from South Africa and Botswana, a Cabinet Minister has said.

The worst affected people are those living in the rural components of the two border towns. The Minister of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services, Dr Tatenda Mavetera, said this while officiating at the handover of 30 goats to the Beitbridge community at Dumba Primary School, which were sourced under the Presidential Goats Scheme.

She said the Young Women for Economic Development organisation had mobilised 750 goats to support the project nationwide in all the 10 provinces, which will each get 75 breeding goats.

Dr Mavetera said President Mnangagwa had since instructed her and the Minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, to urgently work on the mobile telecommunication and broadcasting deficiencies in the two areas.

“We are alive to the communication challenges in the border areas and let me highlight that a few weeks ago, our President (Mnangagwa) instructed me and Dr Muswere to urgently address mobile communication and broadcasting coverage challenges in Plumtree and Beitbridge,” she said.

“Let me assure you that it will not be business as usual and we have given ourselves at least six months to achieve that task. We will make sure that in line with the vision of our leader, no one remains behind in terms of accessing communication facilities. We are ready to deliver as instructed by the Head of State.”

Beitbridge East legislator, Cde Albert Nguluvhe, and the local senator, Cde Tambudzani Mohadi who also attended the same event welcomed the development.

Cde Nguluvhe said he was confident that the Government would deliver on its promise and that he will continuously follow up on the promise by the two ministers.

He said so far, the Government had lived to its word by connecting Dumba Primary School and the local business centre to electricity while providing computers to the school as promised in the period running up to the elections.

The legislator said the state of affairs in terms of mobile or fixed telephones in most remote areas was a cause for concern.

“We have seen some areas including Tshikwalakwala being connected in terms of the mobile network services and we are confident that the Government will deliver on its latest promise to address the challenges in areas in our area where there are still deficiencies,” said Cde Nguluvhe.

Senator Mohadi said the upgrading of communication and broadcasting facilities in the border towns was critical. Currently, radio and television facilities cover only a radius of 80km from the Beitbridge border town.

Those outside that region depend mostly on South Africa. In separate interviews, Dumba villagers said they were looking forward to having reliable network coverage following the latest Government intervention.