Bulawayo City Council requires approximately US$4 million to conduct emergency road rehabilitation works covering 202 400 m2 in order to restore the roads to trafhicable condition, as most have been affected by the rains.
According to latest council minutes, acting director of works, Methusi Dibidi, revealed this while providing an update on the state of the city’s roads.
Dibidi noted that limited intervention and recent persistent rains have significantly worsened pavement conditions, resulting in widespread potholing, pavement failures, and sections of the network becoming untrafficable.
“Given constrained resources, the city has adopted a prioritisation framework focusing on roads with the highest economic, social, and safety impact, including the central business district (CBD), high-speed and arterial roads, public transport routes, roads serving health facilities, schools and tertiary institutions, roads serving shopping centres, and key access roads,” the minutes read.
“The estimated intervention area is approximately 202,400 m2, with a high-level cost estimate of US$4 million.”
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Funding from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara), parking fees, and municipal resources is expected to be used to finance the road rehabilitation works.
Dibidi added that city teams deployed to conduct emergency road maintenance works have been severely constrained by the scale of the required works.
“The city currently operates with only two in-house road maintenance teams, which are inadequate given the extent of network failure,” the minutes read.
“A contractor engaged in November 2025 is undertaking city-wide pothole patching but is struggling to meet contractual obligations due to incessant rains, among other challenges.
“Pothole patching under wet conditions is technically complex and resource-intensive, requiring proper drainage, removal of saturated material, controlled placement of patching material, and compaction in 100mm layers.”
The local authority said it was aware that most roads were now partially impassable, posing both safety and economic risks.
Dibidi revealed that even roads that had previously been rehabilitated are failing due to unresolved drainage issues.
He said the city proposes engaging four contractors for pothole patching and localised pavement reconstruction as part of a special emergency programme to address the deteriorating state of the roads.
“Immediate contractor engagement is critical to prevent further deterioration and significantly higher future rehabilitation costs,” he said.
The city’s road network, spanning almost 2 530 km, has exceeded its economic lifespan and has reached an advanced state of deterioration.
The deteriorating state of the city’s roads is the result of decades of underfunding and a substantial backlog of deferred maintenance.
This is validated by the 2016 Road Condition Survey, which indicated that approximately 75% of the network (about 1 900 km) was already in poor condition, with an estimated US$700 million required to restore the network to an acceptable standard.
—Masiyephambili Weekly