Harare Residents Sue Government Over Unsafe Flyovers
High Court judge, Justice Never Katiyo, will on Tuesday, January 14, hear an application filed by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on behalf of the Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT), over the government’s inaction in repairing defective flyovers posing a serious safety risk to residents of the capital city.
The residents filed the application at Harare High Court on February 15, 2024, seeking an order to compel Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona to rectify the defects on three of the city’s flyovers.
The flyovers are located along Simon Mazorodze Road, Lytton Road, and Fidel Castro Road, identified in a report dated July 27, 2012, as well as all other defects within 90 days of the court order to ensure the flyovers are safe for road users.
HRT also wants the High Court to declare that Minister Mhona’s failure to rectify the defects on the three flyovers violates residents’ right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being as enshrined in section 73(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Through the application, submitted by ZLHR’s Tonderai Bhatasara, HRT, along with Loreen Mupesa, a resident of Harare who frequently uses the roads on the flyovers, argued that as the official responsible for road maintenance and rehabilitation in Zimbabwe, Minister Mhona must safeguard people’s lives by ensuring roads are safe.
HRT and Mupesa protested that Minister Mhona had not addressed the defects, noted several years ago, exposing the flyovers to the risk of collapse and endangering public safety.
They argued that with each passing day, the flyovers became increasingly dangerous and unsafe to use.
According to HRT and Mupesa, the defects on the three flyovers were identified by officials from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and the City of Harare during a joint inspection, contained in a report produced on July 27, 2012.
The report listed defects such as spalling of concrete on bottom flanges of beams, severe corrosion to reinforcement steel, visible cracks along the centerline deck, severely damaged expansion joints, excessive vibration of the superstructure, poor drainage, water leaking on expansion joints, and longitudinal cracks.
HRT and Mupesa noted that while Minister Mhona’s ministry acknowledged the existence of the defects in 2021 and undertook to rectify them, the defects remain unfixed, compelling residents to seek the High Court’s intervention to eliminate the danger posed to motorists and other road users.
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