The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Mr Gugile Nkwinti, will on Friday, 12 April 2013 visit the nearly completed Dalibhunga Mandela Bridge in the Eastern Cape to assess construction progress.
The 98 percent construction completed bridge is being built by several constructors, including local constructors, on the Mbhashe River of the Mbhashe local municipality in the former Transkei. It is scheduled to be completed by May 24 this year.
It is expected that (depending on his health) the 94-year-old former President and the world icon in whose honour the bridge has been named, Mr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, will be fit enough to attend and see this bridge that has been named after him.
Minister Nkwinti has called on the national and international media to descend onto Mbhashe district this Friday to witness and cover this historic occasion.
The 140 metres long bridge is the brainchild of Minister Nkwinti who in 2010 came up with the idea that in order to improve the lives of the people of Mvezo and Ludondolo, who had to travel several hours to get to the Dutywa town, a bridge needed to be built to link the two communities and thus cut the travelling time by half, creating the much needed jobs in the process, whilst boosting tourism to former President Mandela’s birth place.
President Jacob Zuma had on 18 July 2010, the birthday date of Mr Mandela, declared that construction of the bridge would start in earnest that year.
The project includes the construction of two bridges, the 140 long Dalibhunga Mandela bridge, a low lying bridge of 12 metres long and five metres high and a ten kilometre paved road that would link the two rural areas of Mvezo, which is the birth place of Mr Mandela, and the N2 national road between Mthatha and Dutywa.
President Zuma will hand over the bridge to the rural communities of Mvezo and Ludondolo when it is completed next month.
The media houses are invited to send their journalists to cover this important day in the life of our former president, Mr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
