Zambezia (1994), XXI (ii).FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYS:TOWARDS A HISTORY OF ROADS AND ROADTRANSPORTATION IN COLONIAL ZIMBABWE, 1890 TOWORLD WAR II1ALOIS S. MLAMBODepartment of Economic History, University of ZimbabweAbstractThis article traces the history of Zimbabwe's roads and road traffic sectorhorn the turn of the century, when the country had no roads to speak of, untilthe Second World War, when the basic foundations for the present roadsystem had been laid. It argues that during the Company period (up to 1923),very little was done to establish good roads. The Company was more concernedwith promoting railway construction and either had no interest in buildingroads or was apprehensive of the likely competition to railways that wouldresult from a good road network. It was only when Rhodesia attainedresponsible government status that serious attention was given to thedevelopment of roads in the country. The 1930s witnessed the replacement ofold dirt roads with macadamized road surfaces as increasing traffic made dirtroads unsuitable. The article also examines the road regulations passedthroughout the period under study and briefly analyses the type of labourused in the construction of roads in the country.THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE of an efficient transportation system in theeconomic development of modern nations has long been widelyacknowledged. Numerous detailed studies on the revolution in transportin 18th and 19th century Britain, America, Russia and elsewhere haveexplored the complex functional relationships between technologicaladvances in transport and economic growth, and have demonstrated thatthe transport revolution was a key factor in the economic transformationof these countries.Briefly, these studies have argued that nineteenth centuryindustrialization in Europe and the United States was accompanied by thediffusion of better methods of transport which comprised, inter alia,macadamized roads, canals, and railways. They have also demonstratedthat efficient transport not only reduced the costs of moving goods andpeople but also had numerous spin-off effects on the countries' economies1 Hereafter, pre-independence place names are used for the sake of convenience.147148 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSand that improved transportation also helped to break down geographicaland social barriers and promoted competition.2In contrast, scholars of Zimbabwe's economic history have tended toshy away from such studies, despite the fact that a good transportationsystem has historically been of crucial importance to a landlocked countrylike Zimbabwe, which has no seaports of its own and needs efficient roadsand railways to transport its goods to and from the ports of neighbouringcountries. Moreover, within the country, an efficient transportation networkhas been essential in order to link the scattered farms and mines to themain population centres, which form their markets as well as to facilitateeasier communication and mobility for the country's population.The crucial importance of transportation to Zimbabwe's economicwell-being notwithstanding, a comprehensive historical analysis of theevolution and role of transportation in Zimbabwe has yet to be written.This is not to suggest that the field has been neglected altogether, for anumber of studies on aspects of the history of transportation exist. Forinstance, I. Phimister, J. Lunn, A. Croxton, P. Maylam and others havepublished insightful studies on the history of the railways.3 Regrettably,however, other forms of transportation have been largely ignored. While arecently published article on the history of civil aviation in Zimbabwe hasaddressed the hitherto totally neglected air transportation industry,4 ahistory of roads and road traffic has yet to be written.That the focus of scholars should have been mostly on railwaytransportation is not particularly surprising given the central role thatrailways played in the colonialists' imperial designs and the undisputeddominance of railways in the transport systems of the less developedcountries where railways have often been seen as initiators of development2 Studies on the transport revolution in the United States and Europe are too numerousto cite here. Among the many studies on transportation in the United States are the following:G. R. Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 (New York, Reinhart, 1951); CarterGoodrich, Canals and American Economic Development (New York and London, ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1961); Robert Fogel, Railroads and American Economic Growth: An EconometricHistory (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1964); and Alfred D. Chandler Jr., 'The railroads:Pioneers in modern corporate management', in Business History Review (Spring 1965), XXXIX,16-40. For a summary of the evolution of scholarship on transportation in the industrializedcountries see Patrick O'Brien, The New Economic History of the Railways (London, CroomHelm, 1977).31. Phimister, 'Towards a history of Rhodesia railways', in Zimbabwe History (1981), XII,71-100; J. R. Lunn, 'Capitalism and Labour on the Rhodesian Railway System 1890-1939',(Oxford, England, Oxford University, D.Phil. Thesis, 1986); A. H. Croxton, Railways of Zimbabwe:The Story of the Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railways (London, David and Charles, 1982);P. Maylam, 'The making of the Kimberley-Bulawayo railway: A study in the operations of theBritish South Africa Company', in Rhodesian History (1977). VII, 33; and A. M. Kanduza,'Railway rates and capitalist agriculture in Southern Rhodesia 1918-1930', Economic Symposium(8-10 Sept. 1980),l.4 A. S. Mlambo, 'Civil aviation in colonial Zimbabwe 1912-1980", in Zambezia (1992) XIX00,99-116.A. S. MLAMBO 149and 'modernization'. Railways were a major agent in imperial expansion inAfrica, enabling the colonizing powers to establish and consolidate theirpolitical and military power over the subject communities and facilitatingmetropolitan capital's exploitation of the colonies' natural and humanresources.5 In the Zimbabwean case, in addition to the pioneer role outlinedabove, railways were for almost half a century, the only developed form oftransportation as the country's air and road transportation systems werestill in their infancy during that period. While railways continue to play asignificant role in the economy of Zimbabwe, roads and road traffic haveprogressively assumed an equally important role. In their early phase,roads, where they existed, were mere adjuncts of the railway systemwhich transported goods and people from the surrounding farms andpopulation centres to the nearest railway stations. Gradually, however,they assumed a relatively separate identity and combined in theiroperations the dual functions of serving as feeder lines to the railways aswell as being the railways' competitors.6Given the importance of roads in the past and present development ofthe country, perhaps the time has come for scholarship to pay moreattention to the history of this form of transportation which has hithertobeen neglected. Indeed, apart from a 1986 thesis by an undergraduate ofthe University of Zimbabwe and T. C. Salmon's study published in RhodesianEngineer in 1969,7 detailed analyses of the history of road transport areconspicuous by their absence from published scholarship on the historyof the country. Clearly, if we are to fully understand the economic historyof Zimbabwe, we need to know how the country's transportation network,in its entirety, contributed to the shaping of that history.OBJECTIVESUsing archival sources, government publications and secondary sources,I attempt, in this article, to provide a general institutional history ofZimbabwe's road system in the colonial period, highlighting the majorbenchmarks in the development of the country's road transport. I hope,5 E. J. Taafe et at., 'Transport expansion in underdeveloped countries: A comparativeanalysis', in B. S. Hoyle (ed.), Transport and Development (London, Macmillan, 1973), 14ff; A. M.Oconnor, 'Recent railway construction in tropical Africa', in B. S. Hoyle (ed.), Transport andDevelopment, 139-141.6lndeed, by the 1930s, the railway authorities were already bitterly complaining that thecountry's road motor transport services were undermining the operations of the railways byoffering cheaper transportation rates. National Archives of Zimbabwe [Hereafter called NAZ],S482/470/39, PM, Railways: General, Road Motor Transport: Competition With the Railways.7S. Mushunje, 'The Development of Roads and Road Transport 1890-1940s', (Harare,University of Zimbabwe, Economic History Dept, B.A. Honours Dissertation, 1986); T. C.Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian roads: From veldt track to strip road', in RhodesianEngineer (September 1969), VII, (v), 849-851; and (November 1969), V, (xiii-xv).150 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSwith this article, not only to fill the gap in the available scholarship on thehistory of road transportation in Zimbabwe, but also to stimulate furtherresearch on the evolution of the country's transportation andcommunication industries and their impact on the nation's economy.Before such in-depth studies can be undertaken, however, we mustbegin at the beginning and trace the development of the country's majortransportation and communication systems; unless this aspect ofZimbabwean history is fully understood, no meaningful impact studiescan be generated. This paper is meant to make a modest contribution tothe as yet small but growing fund of knowledge on the evolution of thecountry's transportation system.ROADS AND ROAD TRAFFIC, 1890-1939Students of Zimbabwe's railway development have demonstrated theBritish South Africa Company's (BSAC) determination, for a variety ofreasons, to establish a railway line that would link Central Africa to theports of South Africa and Mozambique. In the years following colonization,railway construction into Central Africa remained one of the most importantpet projects of the BSAC shareholders and administrators. Consequently,the Company sponsored a number of railway companies, raised thenecessary funds through the issue of debentures and pushed railwaycontractors to extend the line further into the Central African interior. Bythe end of Company rule in 1923, Zimbabwe's main railway network wasalready in place, although other branch lines were to be added later.8In contrast, not as much attention was given by the BSAC toestablishing and developing the country's roads. Indeed, throughout thefirst decade of Company rule, the country's roads were little more thandirt tracks which had hardly improved from the rudimentary trails madeby the wagons of White adventurers and hunters who had traversed thecountry before 1890.9 In 1891, in a bid to construct more usable roads, theBritish South Africa Company contracted one Frank Johnston and hisassociates, one of whom was F. C. Selous, to construct a good wagon roadto Mount Hampden, just outside Salisbury, to erect forts and to keep thecountry's communication lines open.Under the supervision of Selous, the contractors soon built the roadfrom Charter to Salisbury through 'Marondellas' and from Charter toChimoio via Umtali. Selous's main accomplishment, however, was the8 J. Lunn, 'Capital and Labour'; I. Phimister, Towards a history of Rhodesia railways'; G.Paulijig, The Chronicles of a Contractor (London, Constable, 1926); P. Maylam, 'The making ofthe i?lmberley-Bulawayo railway', and Baron E. B. D'Erlanger, The History of the Constructionand Finance of the Rhodesian Transport System (London, Privately published, 1939).9 T. C. Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian roads', 849.A. S. MLAMBO 151main road from Fort Tuli to Fort Salisbury. Other roads constructed at thistime were the 120-mile-long road from Bulawayo to Tati, the Bulawayo-Charter-Salisbury road and the Moodie Trek running from Fort Victoriaeastward. These were constructed between 1892 and 1895.10Travelling on these dirt roads was reportedly a veritable adventure asox-drawn wagons, the main form of transport then,had to plough through deep sand or be man-handled over stretches of black clay.. . [and] where the track was fairly smooth, dense clouds of dust chocked every-thing and reduced Europeans and Africans alike to a uniform grey.11So rudimentary and primitive were these roads that sometimes it wasdifficult for road users to tell them apart from the animal spoors aroundthem, for as one Sir Crawford Douglas-Jones noted:One of the chief difficulties [for road users] was that of keeping to the road theywished to follow. On leaving a town, the track would be distinct and easy to followbut a few miles out, unless one was familiar with the road, it became difficult todecide which was the correct way, either the well-defined spoor or the indistinctone often hidden in the tall Tambookie grass.12Worse still, during the rainy season, interminable delays, sometimesof up to six weeks, were not uncommon due to flooded rivers which forcedtravellers to bide their time until the rivers were passable once more. Notsurprisingly, the journey from Salisbury to Tuli took three to four weeks,while the journey from South Africa to Salisbury could take as long as fourmonths or more. As if the primitive condition of the roads was not enoughtrouble, travellers faced added hardships with the rinderpest outbreak atthe turn of the century which decimated the country's draught power.13In an effort to resolve the problem one enterprising settler, Lt-ColonelJ. Flint, imported 20 baggage and 14 riding camels and the requisitenumber of Sikh attendants in 1903. The camels' usefulness proved veryshort lived, however, for in the words of one commentator:Alas, Rhodesia's ships of the veld never really set sail; within a few months onecamel had died of what was a fairly common complaint in Rhodesia in those daysŠ cirrhosis of the liver Š and later foot and mouth disease broke out among theothers.1410B. Whyte, 'From wagons to wings', in Illustrated Life Rhodesia (1972). IV, xxiv, 16-31;'Transport in Rhodesia: Road, rail and air1, Rhodesia Property and Finance Supplement (Jan.1970).11 B. Whyte, 'From wagons to wings', 19.12 Ibid.13 Ibid., 10-19."Ibid., 17-19.152 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSIt was not only the main roads linking the country's towns which werein poor condition, for it was also reported that, even in the towns, theroads were in such an appalling state that many settlers resorted to theuse of bicycles. An amusing account is given of the famous RudyardKipling's experience when riding a bicycle on Bulawayo's streets one daywhen it was reported that,[Kipling] hired a bicycle from Dulys for 7s 6d and set off for the Umgusa Hotel,where he arrived with a flourish. In a spirited moment he took a running leap overthe low railing of the verandah. His style was admirable, but sad to relate, he lackedaltitude and caught the top in his flight, landing heavily on a flower bed.15The country's road system remained poor even after the CharteredCompany Government created the Roads Department in 1895. Operatingas a sub-section of the Public Works Department and administered by theSecretary for Mines and Roads, the Roads Department was given theonerous task of constructing and maintaining roads throughout the country.The task was to prove very difficult to fulfil mainly because, for manyyears, the department remained underfunded and possessed neither thenecessary manpower nor the required road construction equipment. It isnot surprising, therefore, that the department accomplished little beforethe First World War.Nine years after its formation, the department had no more than ahandful of White employees comprising the Engineer in charge, oneInspector stationed in Matabeleland and six Overseers. The total numberof African labourers who were expected to service the entire country wasapproximately 240 people. With respect to construction and maintenanceequipment, the picture was none too bright either. In 1914, the departmenthad a total transport fleet of only 39 scotch carts and 89 mules. Because ofinadequate resources, the department managed to establish only a fewearth roads and had built a total of only seven footbridges by 1914.16The unsatisfactory condition of the country's roads at this time wasstrongly deplored by the settler farming community at its 1911 Conventionheld in Umtali, where several speakers complained about the unprofessionalmanner in which the Roads Department conducted its business and thegenerally unserviceable state of the nation's roads. It was pointed out thatinexperienced and unqualified people were appointed to the departmentand were left to do as they pleased without any meaningful supervision,and that road construction and maintenance work was being carried outin a half-hearted and haphazard manner.1715 Ibid.16 T. C. Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian railways', 850.17 Farmers' comments cited in S. Mushunje, 'Roads and Road Transport', 4.A. S. MLAMBO 153One of the strongest criticisms came from George Dyke of Hartley,who complained that the poor roads were hampering economicdevelopment, discouraging immigration and making life unnecessarilydifficult for the settler farmer. He pointed out:One of the first things noticeable [in] the colony is the lack of [road] communica-tion from centre to centre ... to the new settler, it is clearly and forcibly apparentthat, although he may be able to raise marketable produce, how to get it to themarket will be one of his most difficult and expensive operations, so much that insome cases every item of what should be profit has vanished before it is finallydisposed of.18In her 1986 study, S. Mushunje points out that the lack of a sufficientlydeveloped national road system also affected the pattern of Whitesettlement as immigrant farmers tended to prefer establishing themselvesalong the railway lines, not necessarily because the soils in their chosenareas were better suited to agriculture, but because of transportationproblems they were likely to face if they settled in the more outlyingareas.19Throughout the Company years, farmers continued to demand betterroads, particularly as they felt that the railways were taking advantage oftheir monopoly position as the sole carriers of goods within the countryto charge unacceptably high transportation rates. Complaints becamemore vociferous following the increase in railway freight rates in 1916when the rate on grain was hiked by 100 per cent from Id to 2d. In 1918,farmers complained bitterly about the railways' failure to give sympathetictreatment to Rhodesian farmers to enable them to exploit the lucrativeJohannesburg market. In a recent study, A. Kanduza attributed the ratescontroversy to the resentment by 'settler capitalist farming (to) a processin which it saw that its reproduction and expansion were handicapped byhigh railage which reduced the competitive capacity of its commodities inlocal and outside markets'.20Despite the mounting pressure from the settler farmers, the Companystill did not do much, at least in comparison to its efforts in promotingrailways, to speed up road construction, either because it lacked theresources or because, as the owner of the nation's railway system, it wasreluctant to promote road transportation which would inevitably compete18 "Rep. of congress Š Umtali' in Rhodesia Agricultural Union Handbook (1911), cited inS. Mushunje, 'Roads and Road Transport', 4.19 Ibid.20 Several good studies of the rates controversy exist. Among these are J. Lunn, 'Capitalismand Labour'; A. M. Kanduza, 'Railway rates and capitalist agriculture', and M. E. Lee, 'Politicsand Pressure Groups in Southern Rhodesia 1898-1923', (London, University of London, D.PhilThesis, 1974).154 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSwith the railways. Thus, as late as 1919, the Roads Department was stillinadequately equipped for the task assigned to it as can be seen from the1919 Report on Roads, which stated that the Roads Department hadcarried out repairs on over 1 550 miles of roads in that year but noted thatif it 'had been more fully equipped with carts, mules and oxen, morepermanent work would have been undertaken'.21 The situation did notimprove substantially thereafter, despite the appointment of an Engineer-in-Charge of Roads in 1919.22In a bid to encourage district authorities to contribute their fair shareto the road construction programme, the government passed the RoadCouncils Ordinance in 1921. The Road Councils Ordinance provided forthe creation of road councils throughout the country and ruled that thegovernment should give financial aid to such councils through a grants-in-aid system on the S for S basis. District councils were rather slow torespond to this law and it was not until 1923 that the first Road Councilwas established in Que Que.23The reluctance of the country's district authorities to take advantageof the new law was mainly because of the economic depression of theearly 1920s which resulted in a slump in the market prices of cattle andagricultural products. Farmers were thus unwilling to introduce roadcouncils immediately since this would mean increased taxation at a timethey could ill afford to pay and preferred to wait until economic conditionsbecame more propitious.24Throughout the Company period, labour for road construction andmaintenance was supplied primarily by African convict gangs andconscripted African labourers who worked under the supervision of ahandful of White overseers. The 1919 report, for instance, stated that thedepartment was employing five permanent convict parties for roadconstruction work, four of which 'were fifty-strong, with necessary guards. . . and one party twenty-five in number'. In addition, 'small convictparties' were employed throughout the country 'under the supervision ofthe Magistrates or Assistant Magistrates'.2521 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads by the Secretary for Mines and Works, 1919 [Presentedto the Legislative Council, 1920] (Salisbury, Govt. Printer, 1920).22 T. C. Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian roads', 850.23 Road Councils Ordinance, 1921; T. C. Salmon, *A short history of Rhodesian roads',850; Bindura, Shamva, Marandellas, Glendale, Concession, Norton and Bromley had alsoestablished road councils by 1926.24 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. of the Public Works Department, 1921 [Presented to theLegislative Council, 1922] (Salisbury, Argus Printing and Publishing Company Ltd., 1922); T. C.Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian roads', 850; 'Transport in Rhodesia".25 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. of the Public Works Department, 31st March 1904 /Presentedto the Legislative Council, 1904] (Salisbury, Argus Printing and Publishing Company, 1904);Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads by the Secretary for Mines and Works, 1919 [Presented to theLegislative Council, 1920] (Salisbury, Govt. Printer, 1920).A. S. MLAMBO 155By 1922, the department was utilising both convict and free Africanlabour; the first concentrating on permanent road work, while the lattermoved about the country carrying out light road repairs. There were eightconvict gangs of between 25 and 50 men each and 12 free-labour roadparties in all. In addition, nine smaller convict gangs, ranging from 12 to 20units, worked at different centres under the supervision of localmagistrates.26During this period, the Company government passed a number ofroad laws, the most important of which were the Outspan and RoadOrdinance (1898); the Width of Steel Wheel Ordinance (1916); the RoadCouncils Ordinance (1921) and Vehicle Tax Ordinance (1921). The Outspanand Road Ordinance reflected the primitive nature of the country's roadsin this early period when wheeled traffic shared the same roads withlivestock. It merely decreed that,All public roads and roads declared by the Administrator to be open shall be ...100 feet wide and, if unfenced, loose cattle and horses driven along any such roadmay travel on either side of such road, to a distance of at least one hundred feetwithout being liable for trespass or for injury done to crops within that distance.27The Width of Steel Wheel Ordinance was intended to stem the growingproblem of 'rutting' of the roads during the wet season by wagons withnarrow wheels. It ruled that, henceforth, only wagons fitted with tyres notless than four inches in width would be permitted on the country's roads.The Road Councils Ordinance of 1921, as already shown, provided for thecreation of road councils throughout the country to oversee theconstruction and maintenance of district roads, while the Vehicle TaxOrdinance of the same year imposed a tax on all vehicles using thecountry's roads in order to raise funds for road maintenance.28By the end of Company rule in 1923, the country's road system wasstill relatively primitive, although a number of gravel roads had beenconstructed throughout the country and travel was no longer as hazardousas it had been earlier in the century. With all its shortcomings over theyears, the Roads Department had managed to construct over 8 000 milesof public roads by the time it was transferred from the Public WorksDepartment to the newly created Secretariat for Mines and Works in26 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. of the Public Works Department, 1922 [Presented to theLegislative Council, 1923] (Salisbury, Govt. Printer, 1923).27 NAZ, L2/2/129, Outspan and Road Regulations, 1898.28 Width of Steel Wheel Ordinance, 1916; Road Council Ordinance, 1921; and Vehicle TaxOrdinance, 1921.156 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYS1922.29 However, much still remained to be done before the country couldclaim to have an efficient and viable road system. This task was left to theincoming responsible government.ROADS AND ROAD TRAFFIC, 1923-1940Road construction registered major advances in the post-Company periodas successive governments made serious efforts to expand and improvethe country's road network in order to promote White settlement andeconomic development. From 1923, government funding for roadconstruction and maintenance increased steadily from the sum of S15 000which was allocated to the Roads Department in that year to S58 000 in1924, SI 12 000 in 1926, rising to S202 000 by 1927.30Government policy in this period, according to the Minister of Minesand Works, in a speech to the Legislative Council in 1930, was to focusprimarily on the country's main roads, while rendering limited support toDistrict Road Councils in their efforts to develop country roads as perterms of the 1921 Road Councils Ordinance. In his words:The (government's road) programme, is first of all, to take charge of the trunkroads . . . the main arteries of the country . . . Next to that, the policy Is to takecharge of the main roads between different centres i.e. Salisbury and Bulawayo,Salisbury and Umtali... Then we give assistance to road councils in road councilareas and pay on a S for S basis with them in keeping up roads they themselvesmake.31The result of the government's policy, however, was to produce roadsof varying quality within the road system. While those roads fundeddirectly by the government were always well maintained, the quality ofroads under the control of District Road Councils varied according to theeconomic status of the residents of those localities. In well-to-do Whitedistricts, roads were generally well maintained, but those in the resource-starved African Reserves tended to be poor. This is not surprising giventhe fact that, out of the SI 12 000 allocated to the roads in 1926, Africanareas throughout the country received a total of only £1 000.3229 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads by the Acting Secretary for Mines and Works for theYear 1922 [Presented to the Legislative Council, 1923]; 'Transport in Rhodesia'; T. C. Salmon,'A short history of Rhodesian roads', 850.30 NAZ, LE 3/1/1, Folios 728-733, Moffat to Coghlan, March 1926; Rep. of the Chief RoadEngineer for the Year Ended 31st December 1937.31 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. by the Secretary for Mines and Works on Roads, 1930 (Presentedto the Legislative Council, 1931).32 NAZ, S138/27, Transport and Road Building, 1923-31.A. S. MLAMBO 157Furthermore, while road parties working on the main roads and theroads in the well-to-do White districts were generally well-equipped andincreasingly becoming mechanized, road construction gangs in the Africanareas, until the Second World War, had to make do with whatever was athand. Road work in the African areas was carried out by unpaid Africanlabourers who worked under coercion and were expected to supply theirown food and a variety of hand implements such as hoes and axes.Although road duties were normally performed by African males, womenand children were not entirely exempt from such labour demands as theywere sometimes press-ganged into road work.For work on the main roads, the Roads Department depended, initially,on convict gangs as had the Company government previously. The Under-secretary for Mines and Works reported that in 1923 approximately 11convict gangs, comprising 600 convicts, were working on permanent roadconstruction, while nine smaller convict gangs worked in the variousparts of the country. He expressed his gratitude to the Law Department,which he commended for its assistance in 'arranging for the employmentof as much convict labour as is available' and expressed the hope that 'byre-arrangement and by the provision of more portable lock-ups, the servicesof every available convict will be utilized on the public roads of thecountry'.33A year later, however, the wisdom of the continued use of convictlabour on road construction was being questioned. It was pointed out thatutilizing convict labour was too costly because of the need to provideportable lock-ups and the necessary supervision and that 'the absence ofpersonal incentive to get through their work, diminished their value aslabourers'. It was thus resolved that, save for two convict gangs of 75 long-sentence prisoners which would be stationed in semi-permanent campsnear Bulawayo and Salisbury respectively, all future road work would becarried out 'by selected paid labour parties'.34As convict gangs were phased out, more free labourers were engagedso that by the end of 1926, African labourers in the Roads Departmentamounted to 3 425. Thereafter, as the road network expanded, so did thenumber of Africans employed by the department increase to 4 055, 9 230and 10 962 in 1934, 1935 and 1936 respectively. In the early 1930s, as partof the government's efforts to provide unemployment relief to Whiteworkers who had lost their jobs due to the Depression, a number of White33 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads by the Secretary for Mines and Works, 1922, 192,3and 1924.34 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. by the Secretary, Department of Mines and Public Works, onRoads for the Year 1924 (Presented to the Legislative Council, 1925).158 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSand Coloured labourers were temporarily deployed on the nation's roads.For instance, in 1932, two gangs of European unemployed men were put towork on the maintenance of old gravel roads so that permanent roadworkers could concentrate on laying strip roads. By 1934, the last year inwhich this form of unemployment relief was provided, there were 34White and 35 Coloured unemployed relief workers within the RoadsDepartment. Generally, however, the department did not encourage theuse of White workers because they commanded higher wages than Africanlabourers.35In 1925, the Roads Department was re-organized and strengthened,following the appointment of Stuart Chandler as Chief Road Engineer inthat year. By the end of 1926, Chandler had increased the department'scapital equipment to a total of 326 scotch carts, 2 262 oxen, 126 mules, 56rollers, six motor lorries and two concrete mixers. The department hadalso successfully constructed seven high-level and 25 low-level bridgesthroughout the country.36 Until 1929, Chandler built only gravel roadssince he was convinced that the volume of the country's road traffic wasas yet too low to justify spending large sums for the construction of themore expensive permanent roads. This policy was soon to change, however,as the influx of more and faster motor vehicles in the late 1920s began tocause corrugations on the gravel roads, especially in the dry season.37The problem of road corrugation had not arisen in the earlier period,for, before the 1920s, the number of motor vehicles in the country wasvery small. The country's first motor car did not arrive until 1902 whenCharles Duly became the proud owner of a chain-driven, single cylinder,six-and-a-half-horsepower French Gladiator. Soon afterwards, Duly's friend,Francois Issels, imported the second car to grace the country's roads: aFord. Thereafter, more cars were imported into the country as the newmode of travel became increasingly popular.By 1916, the number of cars in the country had increased enough toenable Charles Duly to establish a 'motor corps' of 36 commandeeredvehicles [the total number of cars in the country then] to help in the waragainst the Germans in Tanganyika. By 1922, the number of motor carowners had increased sufficiently to justify the formation of Rhodesia'sown Automobile Association (AA) whose membership was reported at 1 000a year later.38 Despite this notable increase in the number of cars, the35 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. by the Secretary for Mines and Works, 1926; 'Roads Department,Reps, of the Chief Road Engineer, 1934,1935 and 1936', in Southern Rhodesia. Roads Department,Ann. Rep., 1934-1936; B. Whyte, 'From wagons to wings', 21.36 T. C. Salmon, 'A short history of Rhodesian roads', 850.37 Southern Rhodesia, Chief Road Engineer's Rep., 1930.38 B. Whyte, 'From wagons to wings', 19-21.A. S. MLAMBO 159motor car was still a novelty in the country by the end of Company rule.There was, therefore, no pressure on the Roads Department to constructmore durable but expensive permanent roads.The situation changed dramatically in the late 1920s as the motor carbecame more popular and large numbers of cars were brought into thecountry. The following table documents the increase in the number ofcars between 1928 and 1929.NUMBER OF VEHICLES IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA 1928-1929YearMotor carsOther Vehicles(Iron tyred)Municipalities19284 62585019295 275725Elsewhere19286 1757 45019297 7307 200Total192810 8008 300192913 1507 925Source: NAZ, S482/477/39, Roads: General, Number of Vehicles in the Colony,Minister of Mines and Public Works to PM, 23rd July 1930.Commenting on the rapidity with which the new transport technologyof the motor car became popular in the country in the late 1920s, R. Hodder-Williams noted that, while in the early 1920s most farmers in MarandellasDistrict used ox-wagons and car owners 'were the exception', by the endof the decade,the ubiquitous Ford Model-T was becoming more familiar. The newspapers for1928, for instance, clearly suffered from car mania with a sudden expansion ofadvertisements, articles, and travel guides extolling the virtues of the internalcombustion engine.39Equally struck by the changes taking place in the country, the editorof the Rhodesia Herald oi May 3, 1929, stated, 'Generally speaking, therehas been a very considerable increase in the volume of traffic on all roads,estimated by the Chief Road Engineer at 117 per cent.' In addition to thegrowing demand for better roads by private motorists, the introduction ofthe Road Motor Services by the Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railwaysand the government in 1927 exerted further pressure on the country'sroad network.Many outlying farming and mining areas were not serviced by therailways and were periodically cut off from other centres during periods39 R. Hodder-Williams, White Farmers in Rhodesia 1890-1965: A History of MarandellasDistrict (London, Macmillan Press, 1983), 155.FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSI"(v lie disease epidemics, when draught power became unavailable,%s during the East Coast Fever outbreak of the late 1920s. To servicefc .areas, railway companies, in conjunction with the Rhodesiavliment, introduced the Rhodesian Motor Services (RMS) in June, %he first service ran from Sinoia to Miami and was served by a""wcroft A3 Petrol-driven six-wheeled vehicle, with a payload of twohalf tons; the first three-axled lorry to be used in the country.*%k;e of the poor condition of the roads, the 72-mile trip from Sinoia tolook eight hours in the dry season and a staggering 24 hours during|*lt season.llher RMS routes were opened thereafter so that by 1928, RMS coveredof 1 778 miles, while the service boasted a fleet of 17 lorries of theSteeled type, two four-wheeled lorries and four-wheeled trailers. Ten'Łrater, RMS boasted a total of 44 lorries, two passenger coaches andul Ulers. The RMS transported mainly bulky agricultural commoditiesliutlying farms to railheads throughout the country. In the 1930s, the"^te played a crucial role in transporting vital construction material for^'chenough Bridge. As some of the building material for the bridgejTiported from Britain and transported by railway to Umtali, RMS"»sd the necessary transportation link from Umtali to the Birchenough'Ł site on the Sabi River.40jj growing demand for better and more durable roads forced theEngineer to reconsider his earlier views on the adequacy ofroads. In 1927, he had argued strongly against construction of^concrete or tar-macadamized roads because of the expense theyIn a letter to the Secretary for Mines on November 8, 1927, theEngineer had written:''Hfce roads will cost about £8 000 a mile and there are 6 000 miles of main roads= mountry so the total cost of concreting these will amount to S48 000 000 ...1 <per type of road is sprayed tar macadam which costs £2 000 a mile or* 000 for the 6 000 miles ... It will be seen that both these amounts are far in*Ca»f what a country with a white population of 40 000 can afford or expect... Tothe type of road being made today, this can be made at a cost of £150 al"«md the maintenance costs about £10 a mile ... This cost is more in keeping"««e financial resources of the Colony.41Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads for the Year 1928 [Presented to the Legislative11929] (Salisbury, Govt. Printers, 1929); Beiraand Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railways,JKsihe General Manager, 1917-1930 (Bulawayo, Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Co.i :i|IQ); 'The trailmakers: The story of Rhodesia railways', Illustrated Life Rhodesia Supplement,. 1973), 47; S. Mushunje, 'Roads and Road Transport', 24.IliMAZ, S481/701, PM, Roads General, Chief Road Engineer to Secretary for Mines andlt%iovember 8, 1927.A. S. MLAMBO 161By 1930, however, the Chief Road Engineer was persuaded thatpermanent roads were more in keeping with the growing demands of thecountry's traffic than gravel roads. In his words:Owing to the increased heavier and faster moving traffic, the problem of corruga-tions and of maintaining the roads in the dry season is becoming greater each yearand at no distant date the question of constructing a class of road better than theordinary gravel road in use will have to be considered.42Soon afterwards, the Chief Road Engineer authorized the constructionof an experimental concrete strip road on the Gwelo-Selukwe road. Here, aquarter mile of parallel strips each 2ft wide and separated by 2ft and 9" ofcompacted gravel were laid at a cost of S400 per mile. The results of theexperiment demonstrated clearly that, while strip roads were moreexpensive to construct than earth roads, they were a far better alternativeto the dusty and often corrugated gravel roads then existing in thecountry.43Satisfied with the results of the experiment, the Chief Road Engineerordered more concrete strips to be built in the country. It was soondiscovered, however, that, though an improvement on the gravel roads,concrete strips had their own drawbacks. Concrete strip roads werecostly to build and entailed the use of large numbers of semi-skilledworkers requiring very skilled supervision. Furthermore, the life span ofthe roads was unsatisfactorily short as heavy vehicles tended to destroythe edges of the strips. Users of the roads also complained about thediscomfort from driving on shiny concrete roads which gave out anunacceptable glare in strong sunlight. In any case, the process ofconstructing concrete roads was rather slow.For these reasons, the Roads Department turned to the use of asphaltin 1933. Earlier experiments with this medium of construction had provedthat asphalt was considerably cheaper and easier to lay than concrete.Furthermore, unlike concrete, asphalt paving did not require the use oflarge amounts of sand and water. Asphalt had other advantages overconcrete: it was more flexible and was, therefore, more capable of adjustingto periodic soil movements without cracking, did not require large amounts42 Southern Rhodesia, Chief Engineer's Rep., 1930.Rhodesia',wings', 21." Southern Rhodesia, Chief Engineer s Rep., 1930.43 NAZ, NA/Gen-P/CHA, Stuart Chandler (Chief Road Engineer), 'Asphalt strips in Southernesia', in Improved Highways (1933), VI, (iv), 108-126 and B. Whyte, 'From wagons to'.21.162 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSof skilled labour, did not command high maintenance costs and had theadded advantage of being glare free in strong sunlight. Furthermore, asphalt-paved roads had a long life span of about 15 years before they needed re-surfacing.44From 1933 onwards, therefore, the Roads Department's strip-roadconstruction programme went full steam ahead, until by 1936, it wasreported that motorists could,now travel continuously on asphalt paving from near Macheke at one end to southof Balla Balla at the other end, a distance of approximately 415 miles. This is by farthe longest stretch of continuous paved surface in the whole of Africa.By 1938, asphalt strip roads extended in an unbroken line from Umtalithrough Salisbury, Enkeldoorn, Fort Victoria to Beitbridge and from Umtalito Bulawayo, covering a total distance of 1 182 miles. In 1945 the countryboasted a total of 2 211 miles of asphalt strip roads.45In conjunction with strip road laying, the roads department alsoundertook a vigorous programme to construct both low-level and high-level bridges to minimize the delays occasioned by flooded rivers in thepast. More than 266 low-level bridges and 12 high-level bridges wereconstructed during this period. The three most notable high level bridgesconstructed at this time were the Alfred Beit Bridge over the LimpopoRiver (1928), the Birchenough Bridge over the Sabi River (1935) and theOtto Beit Bridge over the Zambezi (1939). The bridge constructionprogramme was funded, partly, by the Beit Trust which had been set upearlier to improve transportation and communication in the country. Ofthe total number of bridges constructed in the country by 1939, 92 hadbeen funded directly by the Beit Trust while the remainder were paid forthrough various loan funds.46Between 1923 and World War II, a number of important road lawswere enacted. Among the most important of these were the Roads andRoad Traffic Act (1925) and the Roads and Road Traffic Act (1936).47TheRoad and Roads Traffic Act of 1925 was limited in its scope as it was44 Stuart Chandler, 'Asphalt strips'.45 Southern Rhodesia, Rep. on Roads for the Year 1936 [Presented to the LegislativeCouncil, 1937] (Salisbury, Govt. Printer. 1937); Southern Rhodesia. Rep, on Roads for the Year1940 [Presented to the Legislative Council, 1941] (Salisbury, Govt. Printer, 1941). The onlysignificant road work carried out during the war period was the erection of milestones on theBulawayo-Victoria Falls Road at five-mile intervals.46 B. Whyte, 'From wagons to wings'. 21; T. C. Salmon. *A short history of Rhodesianroads', 851.47 NAZ, S481/1042, PM, Roads General: Roads and Road Traffic Act, 1925; NAZ. S482/477/39, PM, Transport Department, Roads and Road Traffic Regulations, 1936; Roads and RoadTraffic Act, 1936.A. S. MLAMBO 163designed essentially to enable the government to regulate all traffic on theroads in order to prevent the destruction of roads by improper use. TheRoads and Road Traffic Act of 1936 was more comprehensive and was,undoubtedly, the most significant piece of road legislation to be passed inthe country before the Second World War.The 1936 Act was based on a number of recommendations made by aspecial committee, known as the Road Committee, which was set up bythe Cabinet on August 3, 1934 to recommend appropriate legislation togovern road traffic in the country. In its report, submitted to the PrimeMinister by its chairman R. L. Hardy in September of the same year, theCommittee made a number of recommendations, among which were thatthe government should:a) provide for the creation of a road fund to finance road constructionand maintenance;b) introduce a compulsory scheme for the control of roads by localbodies;c) make laws pertaining to safety and the control of public servicevehicles and goods vehicles;d) introduce third party risk insurance for all motor car owners; ande) enact legislation controlling unfair competition between rail and roadservices and among road services operators.48The Road Committee's recommendations require comment. Therequest for the setting up of a road fund arose out of the fact that roadmaintenance costs were escalating rapidly as the road network expandedand were becoming an increasing burden on the country's coffers. It wasfelt that some way had to be found to make the road users meet part of thecosts. Consequently, the Committee recommended that a road fund, largeenough to meet the full cost of all main and district roads, should be set upfrom annual vehicle and driver's licenses and money obtained from customsduties on motor cars, motor trucks, motor cycles, their spare parts andaccessories, tyres and tubes and petrol.In recommending the introduction of compulsory schemes for localroad maintenance, the Road Committee was concerned by the reluctanceof many districts to establish road councils ever since the passage of the1921 Road Councils Ordinance. To ensure that all districts would establishroad councils, the Committee recommended that,48 NAZ, S482/477/39, PM, Transport Department, Rep. of Road Committee Appointed inTerms of Cabinet Resolution No. 3 768 of 3rd August, 1934 [R. L. Hardy ŠChairman] submittedto the PM in September 1934 (Hereafter called The Hardy Rep.).FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYS««e of the existing road council system which is based on permissive legisla-::scheme should be instituted empowering the Governor to establish a roadJ III in any area where it is considered necessary... (and) those living in settledJttshould) take responsibility towards local government and form road coun-the purpose of constructing and maintaining the local road system.Łwas felt however, that the government should continue to subsidizecouncils on the S for S basis as it had done in the past.(Emendation (c) stemmed from the Committee's concern that, despitetrease in the number of public vehicles on the country's roads in the*«ew years, there was currently no legal mechanism enabling theIrities to verify the fitness of public vehicles. As a result, many"*ttents, which could have been avoided had appropriate legislationn place, were occurring on the roads.le call for legislation to curb unfair competition was probably" %iced by the railway authorities who were increasingly demanding"tfction from what they regarded as crippling and unfair competition%oad services.49 The Committee noted that the rising incidence ofcompetition between rail and road services was caused by the factrailways operated under restrictive regulations and had tocharges in connection with the upkeep of their permanent way,iiransport was free of any restrictive legislation and did not contributei r share towards the construction and maintenance of the road"fin.»— therefore, recommended the enactment of 'reasonable regulationspublic service vehicles and goods vehicles' and the controlmotor services 'through the medium of a board by licenses, . . .minimum tariff rates' and other measures. The Committee felt itissary to point out, however, that the recommendation was in no way*Tied to bolster up the railways 'through stringent control of commercialItttransport' as 'we hold the view that the public are entitled, withini in limits, to the lowest transport rates obtainable'.50Mil the above recommendations were incorporated in the Roads and"Traffic Act of 1936 which provided for regulations governing, inter-»'SS8 NAZj S482/470/39, PM, Railways: General, Road Motor Transport, Competition withKpways. This file contains a memorandum from the Rhodesia Railways to G. M. Huggins,JWnune 3, 1937 which refers to the existence of the railway authorities' unhappiness withmijjg competition from road motor transport as early as 1933. It is more than likely,a»'.ire, that representations on this issue were made to the Roads Committee and influencedlamimmendations pertaining to unfair competition.mma The Hardy Rep.A. S. MLAMBO 1651) the construction and maintenance of roads;2) the establishment and financing of road councils;3) the registration of motor vehicles and licensing of all vehicles;4) control of public service vehicles;5) the establishment of compulsory insurance against third party risks;6) licensing of drivers of motor vehicles; and7) miscellaneous provisions regarding speed limits, dangerous drivingand accidents.51As shown above, the road programme witnessed significant expansionin the post-Company period so that, by the outbreak of the Second WorldWar, there was in place a fairly modern highway system of asphalt striproads and reasonably usable gravel roads linking major population centresto each other and with the surrounding countryside. This road networkserviced an increasing volume of traffic which, according to the ChiefRoad Engineer's 1938 report, had increased by some 500 per cent sinceasphalt strips were first constructed a few years earlier. Not only wasthere more traffic, its speed was also faster by 100 per cent since 1933.52During the war, however, little attention was paid either to roadmaintenance or road construction as the country's resources were directedto the war effort. As a result, the country's road system deterioratedconsiderably and was in an unsatisfactory condition by the end of the war.The deterioration had been worsened by the rapid increase in road trafficduring the war years. Not only were there more cars in the country thanbefore, but the number of heavy vehicles and the speed of motor vehicleshad also increased considerably. Consequently, the strip roads which,before the war, had been hailed as the ultimate solution to SouthernRhodesia's road transport problems, were, by war's end, found to begrossly inadequate. To cope with the new post-war traffic needs, aprogramme of road construction, using the conventional bituminous matwas started in 1946 as the country entered yet another phase of roadconstruction, improvement and consolidation. This phase, however, liesoutside the scope of this study.CONCLUSIONThe article has traced the development of Rhodesia's road system fromcolonization to the Second World War and argued that, until the 1920s, thecountry had no road system to speak of, mainly because the British South51 Roads and Roads Traffic Act, 1936.52 Rep. of the Chief Road Engineer, 1938 (Salisbury, Govt. Stationery Office, 1939).166 FROM DIRT TRACKS TO MODERN HIGHWAYSAfrica Company devoted most of its financial resources and attention torailway construction and very little to road construction. The expansionof the country's road system began in earnest after Rhodesia gainedresponsible government status in 1923 when the demand for better roads,arising out of the increased number of motor cars in the country, led tothe introduction of asphalt strip roads which revolutionized the country'sroad system and laid the foundations for future road development.No effort has been made in the article to assess the impact of roaddevelopment on the country's economy since such a complex andcontroversial subject deserves greater attention and deeper analysis thancould be accorded to it in a paper of this size and focus. The need foranalyses of the impact of road, rail and air transport on Zimbabwe'seconomic development cannot be overstressed, for without such studies,any statements concerning the importance of transport in the country'sdevelopment can only be tentative educated guesses. It is hoped that thisstudy will stimulate interest in studies of the impact of transportationover time, for only then can we understand to what extent transportationhelped shape the trajectory of Zimbabwe's development.