Scores of stakeholders drawn mainly from the motoring public and sections of the commuting public have raised concern over their non-consultation by the Chitungwiza municipality on the Unit C-junction traffic light project. The stakeholders have recently been frequenting the Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association (CAMERA) offices urging the Association to facilitate that there is dialogue between the local authority and the related stakeholders.
Some stakeholders are of the view that a traffic circle popularly known as a roundabout could have been a better solution in addressing matters connected to traffic jam, unruly conduct by some motorists and general traffic mayhem associated with this busy intersection. The demonstration traffic light by Solarlux Solutions Company could have been a strategic intervention had the local authority sought the opinions of the motoring and commuting public before the trial-run phase.
The Chitungwiza pilot project by Solarlux Solutions Company comes at a time after the same company was ordered to remove a similar demonstration traffic light at the corner of Masotsha Ndlovu and First Avenue in the Waterfalls area in Harare. The company was ordered to remove the traffic lights owing to an absence of prior feasibility studies and lack of stakeholder engagement as the case in Chitungwiza.
CAMERA calls on the Chitungwiza municipality and Solarlux Solutions Company to engage related stakeholders who are directly affected by such a development. Some of these stakeholders include the motoring public, commuters and residents among others. Several Chitungwiza residents interviewed on the traffic lights matter indicated that the areas that are in critical need for traffic lights are along Harare-Chitungwiza highway adjacent to St Mary’s police station and at the intersection of Tilcor road and Chitungwiza-Machipisa highway.
Source: Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association (CAMERA)
