BBR and RIDA Respond to Villagers’ Road Plea

BBR has partnered with the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) to rehabilitate a vital service road in Insindi, Gwanda District, after villagers living along the corridor raised concerns about its deteriorating condition.

The road runs alongside the Bulawayo–Beitbridge railway line and is a lifeline for more than 60 households, connecting them to Gwanda Town and the healthcare, education, and other essential services found there. Heavy rains during the 2025/26 season left long stretches of the road badly damaged, at times cutting the community off almost entirely.

Insindi Village sits around 10 kilometres from Gwanda Town along the railway corridor. For residents, the road is not a convenience but a necessity — and its condition had reached a point where everyday travel was becoming genuinely unsafe.

Village Development Committee chairperson Mr Xolani Ncube said the rehabilitation work has brought major relief to a community that had struggled with the road for years.

“That road had not been serviced for a very long time and we were facing serious challenges, especially during the rainy season. Vehicles were getting stuck and sometimes people would spend the night on the road guarding their vehicles.”

Xolani Ncube · Village Development Committee Chairperson

According to Mr Ncube, this year’s rains left the road severely damaged, forcing drivers in some sections to carve out alternative routes simply to get through. The community has since taken ownership of the project, with residents volunteering their own labour alongside the machinery on site.

“The community has assumed ownership of the project. People are volunteering their labour because they know how important this road is to our daily lives,” said Mr Ncube.

BBR Safety, Health, Environment, Risk and Quality Officer Mr Jullian Nkosi confirmed that BBR responded directly after the Insindi community raised its concerns. The full 7-kilometre stretch requires complete rehabilitation, and BBR moved to bring in the right partners to make that possible.

“We have come together with the Insindi community in servicing the road after they approached us with concerns that the service road was in a dilapidated state. We then engaged RIDA, which has provided a yellow machine for the works.”

Jullian Nkosi · BBR Safety, Health, Environment, Risk & Quality Officer

BBR contributed 200 litres of diesel to keep the machinery running. As Mr Nkosi explained, the initiative matters for more than convenience — it directly supports the safety of both the community and the trains operating along this corridor. BBR intends to extend similar interventions to other service roads along the line that have gone without maintenance for years.

RIDA Matabeleland South Provincial Director Mr Likhwalethu Ndlovu said the agency was glad to support the partnership, describing it as being fully in step with Government’s development philosophy of leaving no one and no place behind. Although the road technically falls under BBR’s jurisdiction, RIDA saw an opportunity to collaborate and mobilise additional resources for the community.

“Initially, the community approached us requesting rehabilitation of the road, but we advised them that it falls under BBR. Through a public-private partnership arrangement, we have mobilised resources to attend to the road.”

Likhwalethu Ndlovu · RIDA Matabeleland South Provincial Director

RIDA supplied the machinery and technical expertise, while BBR covered consumables such as diesel — a partnership Mr Ndlovu said is also being used as an opportunity to rehabilitate the wider road network within the Insindi community, not just the single stretch that prompted the request.

For BBR, projects like this reflect a broader commitment to the communities along the corridor it operates in — investing in the infrastructure that keeps both rail operations and everyday rural life running safely and reliably.