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Dr Joram Gumbo

Richard Muponde, Plumtree Correspondent
THE Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) has set its sights on erecting a fence along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road as part of its 100-day plan.

The parastatal boasts of having completed two similar projects along the Bulawayo-Gweru and Plumtree-Bulawayo highways.

The Plumtree–Bulawayo highway fence was commissioned yesterday while the Bulawayo-Gweru one was completed mid last year.

This was revealed by TSCZ board chairman, Mr Albert Mugabe, in his briefing to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Cde Joram Gumbo, who was the guest of honour at the commissioning of the Plumtree-Bulawayo highway fence in Figtree.

“After this, we are embarking on another project of fencing the Beitbridge-Bulawayo highway. We are doing the ground work and as soon as the modalities are done we will start the project. We have not started it but that route is prominent on our radar as it has high statistics of animal-vehicle collisions,” he said.

Mr Mugabe said the programme of fencing highways would spread countrywide but they had seen it prudent to start with the southern region, because of the heavy presence of livestock and wildlife.

“TSCZ has embarked on a programme of re-fencing our highways. We are re-fencing them because the fences were there before but were vandalised.

“We started by re-fencing the Bulawayo-Gweru one as we had accidents caused by animals daily, but we are spreading throughout the country. It was logical to start with this region because it has a lot of animals be it livestock or wildlife,” he said.

Mr Mugabe said TSCZ has a mandate to enhance safety on the country’s roads hence the first port of call was to remove animals from the highways.

“As TSCZ it’s imperative for us to continue searching for that reality so that many lives are saved on the country’s roads. Locals must have a buy-in in the whole project so that it becomes successful,” he said. — @richardmuponde.