By Burzil Dube
WITH Covid-19 cases on a gradual decline, it is everyone fervent hope that this pandemic is brought to an end as its repercussions ontinue being felt across the whole world with business alignment being the order of day.
Together we can conquer this pandemic if we do pull together in a similar direction and the onus is upon the entire populace to have a similar vision.
Some good tidings is that the country’s Covid-19 level has been downgraded two steps to Level 2 with intercity public transport now being entertained as well as bottle stores now fully operational albeit though through stipulated regulations.
Beerhalls and bars fanatics remain in the terraces because their ‘imbibing kingdom’ continues to be elusive even though some may find solace in shebeens, but will always keep an eagle eye on law enforcement agencies.
This could be the genesis of hope to those in the traveling and touring industries even though it is no longer going to be business as usual against a background of Covid-19 change of settings.
Yours Truly, was this week supposed to analyse in detail the symbiotic relationship between Ba Lemba’s 12 clans and the biblical 12 tribes, who are traced to Jacob who bore similar number of sons. These sons came into being during The Old Testament era an offer prevalent in most Christianity teachings.
This interesting piece would be ready in the coming week as more facts are currently being gathered in this Lemba/Jewish relationship, which has in the past been a subject of debate in some religious quarters.
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As previously written in traveling and touring columns, the Ba Lemba or Va Remba as they widely known in Zimbabwe, are reported to trace their roots from the biblical Hebrews/Israelites who migrated from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan situated in the Middle East.
Some clans of this particular tribe are scattered in Southern Africa while locally they are mainly concentrated in Mberengwa, Masvingo and Nyanga among others.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this will certainly be unravelled in the forthcoming piece as Yours Truly continues to engage Ba Lemba/Jewish experts.
Anyway, that aside.
During the past few months, there has been a hive of activity on the country’s major roads courtesy of the ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, which has also come with a jingle praising the country’s leadership for the road rehabilitation exercise.
Commendable indeed.
Yours Truly had in previous columns embarked on a crusade to implore the powers that be to fully utilise road rehabilitation programme as the road network system was rather in a sorry and deplorable state.
Some, if not all of the roads which Yours Truly highlighted, are currently being attended to despite numerous challenges that could have been encountered during execution of the entire programme.
Some of the mentioned roads that featured prominently in previous traveling and touring articles include the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road which has in the past decades been making cameo appearances in the ministry’s drawing boards.
There have been memes about this particular road trending in social media where one individual could be seen shaking hands with the other who was on the opposite side of this busy highway.
They were probably trying to show the status of this road whose rehabilitation was rather overdue.
The average width of a tarred road of this stature is about four metres.
The Bulawayo-Nyamandlovu road is also being taken care off and the worst area was from the latter to Tsholotsho. It has reportedly been graded for easier access to various destinations along this route.
However, It remains to be seen if the necessary tarring procedures would be applied before the onset of the rainy season.
The programme is also in full swing in Bulawayo where major roads linking the country’s second largest city centre with both high and low density suburbs being attended to with utmost urgency. The same applies to the long and winding Masiye Phambili road, which is also used as a gateway to Victoria Falls road.
Potholes, which used to be order of the day along Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway, are gradually becoming a thing of the past which is a clear sign of road rehabilitation programmes courtesy of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
It is public knowledge that this highway plays a major role in linking Victoria Falls, the country’s premier holiday resort city with the world.
The list is endless and kudos for the full utilisation of road rehabilitation funds.
Till we meet again in the next column.
- Comments always welcome on: [email protected] or Twitter@DubeBurzil
