Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Vincent Mwale and his Botswana counterpart Thulangano Segokgo have carried out a final inspection of the Kazungual Bridge yesterday.
The two Minister’s first had a virtual bilateral meeting before undertaking the inspection of the bridge and later held a joint media briefing in the middle of the master piece bridge.
The final inspection signifies that the Kazungula bridge is now ready to be officially commissioned by the Presidents of Zambia and Botswana.
And Hon. Mwale said the two governments were excited that the bridge had been completed and that it would help ease movement of goods and services not only between the two countries but the entire Southern African region.
“We are excited that this state of the art bridge has been completed and I have been told that this facility will reduce the transit time for heavy duty vehicles between Zambia and Botswana from more than 3 days to only 2 hours. This is a great milestone in the promotion of trade and regional integration.” Hon. Mwale said.
Hon. Thulangano Segokgo said Botswana was excited with the successful completion of the Kazungula bridge which is one of the best modern engineering venture not only in Southern Africa but the entire Africa.
And Southern Province Minister Edify Hamukale said the province was impressed with the facility which is one of the biggest in Africa.
He said the Province was grateful to the Government for implementing the project.
Meanwhile, Housing and Infrastructure Development Permanent Secretary Eng. Danny Mfune says Zambia and Botswana have made significant progress in coming up with the Kazungula Bridge Project Authority.
Eng. Mfune says the authority would administrator the day to day operations of the Kazungula Bridge one stop border facility.
The ceremony was also witnessed by Transport and Communications Permanent Misheck Lungu, Zambia’s High Commissioner to Botswana Mwansa Kapaya, Road Development Agency (RDA) Acting Chief Executive Officer Eng. Geoerge Manyele among many others.
This one was not built by shoddy contractors and engineers, Bwana Lungu.However i still suspect kickbacks involved here.
From a colonial pontoon to one of the largest bridges in Africa. Only under PF. Well done guys.
Because Botswana took over the bank out 2 years ago when Zambia were always behind paying contractors.
Zambian citizen thank you for you thank you. However, we in pf thank you all because you the people trusted us and gave us the mandate to rule. Therefore we are only doing what you voted us in for.
As for the angry upnd diasporan aka nostradamus continue wallowing in you self hate. You are A coon who has been brainwashed to always think anything done by zambians is inferior
Zambian Citizen -Only took 56 years and PF were not the ones that started the project, funny to see the railway tracks on bridge when no rail line beyond the bridge, nearest rail line is in Livingstone 80km away . Also the minister said the trucks will only have to wait 2 hours instead of 3 days , well it was common to wait 7 days and as car driver i never got through in less than 1 hour, still the paperwork and red tape only saving will be the pontoon took 15-30 min now to drive 5 min, but what will they charge to cross, Bots has said free to their citizens , doubt that will happen in Scambia. After all the bridge was paid for by foreign donors. A big thank you to Japan and South Korea.
This was not done by the PF government… it wasn’t their ideanor the national money under their supervision. This bridge started under UNIP, then MMD. The money was from development partners and the Botswana government.
The PF are just now getting credit for it by pure coincidence of being the government in power. The same with Mongu-Kalabo Road. Of course kickbacks and ‘nchekeleko’ always happen and no exception here.
I hope they built pedestrian walk areas as I can’t see that on the photos. The way they bungled the Mongu-Kalabo Rd with no side or pavement walk areas for pedestrians or those on pusb bikes, yet 90% of the population walk on foot. Poor planning.
At least it was designed and built by the South Koreans not Chinese so it will last, Sadly no local Zambian Engineering company was involved, maybe because they could not afford the bribes that had to be paid to PF
This has never been a PF project and will never. The bilateral, multilateral agreements and funds were secured way before PF cane into power.
These kangaroos in PF must be weird to thinking this was their baby dream project.
This was not an overnight project and good enough it was joint venture involving mature administration the Botswana if it was Zambian government run by PF would failed lamentably now wander they had issues releasing funds to contractors in some instances.
PF must go!
Visibly proper infrastructure over there. Let’s maintain this standard everywhere in our country and we’ll be fine. Inspections must also continue beyond the launching day to ensure the bridge remains in top condition.
Nine Chale, good point you raise there about “…Inspections must also continue beyond the launching day to ensure the bridge remains in top condition…”. These infrastructure the critical part is the ongoing maintenance, and often the most expensive part of any infrastructure projects. These guys when they built these products/systems need to be factoring in the total cost of ownership to include how they would pay for them beyond the acquisition stage. Sadly this crucial consideration is missing in most Zambian projects.
@Cosmos Zulu Barlows (Zambian company) was involved in the project.
UPND cadres will one die of hurt and bitterness. How is this not a PF project? These sons of the evil one do not even know who and when the MoU was signed. The first MoU was signed in 2006 failed, another one in 2008 by Kapembwa Simbao failed also. The one that succeeded was signed is As of 01.08.2011
1 UA = 1.6 USD
Botswana 1 UA = 10.4604 BWP
Zambia 1 UA = 7605 ZMK
When did PF come into power? Ba Kabwa imwe
This was not a PF govt. initiative. In fact The PF government delayed it by late payments of their share.
A modern bridge for a modern world! But, will its modernity be matched by a modern thinking, & ardent workforce? I very much doubt!…maybe on the Bostwana side. On the Zambian side, I expect continuation of the usual apathetic attitude to work.
It seems that people in the front line of service delivery in Zambia, have no clue how quickly the rest of the world moves. They appear to relish prolonged waiting and long queues as if the world was at a standstill. No one seems to frown on keeping customers waiting.
I attempted opening a bank account in Zambia recently – it took two days of ‘to & from’, queues & multiple form filling, referrals to different officials,..I gave up. That’s possible business lost for Zambia! Our people are not enthusiastic to deliver efficient…
Umutong.a tesana
Cont..
enthusiastic to deliver efficient services, but expect payment. This is costly to the economy. You’ve got to work at World pace, or you are left behind!
@Kaizar Zulu this is not PF bandits achievement iwe makaka….this is Zambia and Botswana….PF is not Zambia…so learn to differentiate…..I thought you’re an intelligent pompwe kanshi you just full of Makaka
Reporters Reporters please go to school. And come back poised to fulfill your mission. You keep telling us it’s state of the art but none of you describes it. You are saying it’s ‘a master piece bridge’. Tell us why you say so. Should I expect a bridge that takes me from one end to the other without driving my car? Or a bridge with a theatre playing an opera as we cross? Or a bridge with a shopping mall with shelves of duty free chocolate, Jamesons, and brand new Toyota for sale? Or just a bridge floating on a magic carpet ride? Tiuzeni kabili.
Kazunguala. LT are experts at renaming places and people
@Ubututu you are correct but it is Zulu Burrow Limited not Zulu Barlow
Rhodes Park, Lusaka, Zambia
This is good news indeed. God bless Zmabia & Botwana!
Well done to PF. Wish ba SATA became the president in 1991. 20 years wasted MMD with nothing to Sonta at.
Great work Dr Lungu you have done a good job you deserve another term, I would rather vote for you than these who talk unsubstantiated stories, they say they will change the kwacha value but have no clue to who is behind the depreciation of the kwacha.
The story behind the falling of a kwacha is far beyond Zambia so at this time no Zambian can end the system that controls African economies unless the whole African countries come together and work together .
Lungu is doing what every hard working African president can do better he is supported.