The government is now in the market for boats and ferries to service inland waterways, with Lake Kariba as the priority after last month’s deadly capsizing, Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet George Charamba has said.
“ON THE INSTRUCTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, DR ED MNANGAGWA, Government is in the market for boats and ferries to service our inland waterways, principally Kariba, which recently saw a maritime tragedy,” Charamba wrote on X on Sunday.
He said there will be a two-stage probe to provide immediate relief and long-term solutions to maritime transport.
The team, led by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, is looking at a comprehensive answer for Zimbabwe’s lakes and dams which remain un- or under-serviced.
“Accent is on safety, cargo and passenger services to ensure a total solution,” Charamba said.
The announcement came hours after Mashonaland West proportional representation MP Mutsa Murombedzi raised the alarm that hundreds of learners and teachers are stranded ahead of schools opening on 8 September.
Murombedzi said the capsizing of the Mbuya Nehanda ferry, the only direct and affordable link between Nyaminyami rural and Kariba urban, had left families stuck on the wrong side of the lake.
“In Kariba, schools are opening in 2 days, school children and many teachers who had crossed the lake to the other side for holidays after schools closed are now stranded on the other side of the Zambezi and punished with a $30+ detour of using the Karoi – Siakobvu – Mola route,” Murombedzi wrote.
“The Mbuya Nehanda boat, once a lifeline connecting the communities of Nyaminyami, that is rural Kariba and urban Kariba, capsized in Lake Kariba.”
She described the situation as “the price of decades of rural neglect where roads remain broken, and just the access to clean water is a nightmare even beside the largest man-made lake in the world”.
Murombedzi called on the government to urgently provide a shuttle bus for returning teachers and learners to Nyaminyami and to fix the Karoi-Binga road so more transport operators can ply the route.
For Nyaminyami, considered the least developed district in the country, the ferry was not a luxury. By water, the route between Kariba Urban and Chalala is only about 64km, compared to 437km by road from Karoi to Chalala.
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