Hundreds of schoolchildren and teachers from Nyaminyami – rural Kariba – who crossed Lake Kariba for the holidays are now stranded on the other side of the Zambezi, with schools set to open on Tuesday, 8 September, after the cheaper and only direct link between the two Karibas was cut.
Proportional Representation MP for Mashonaland West Province, Mutsa Murombedzi, raised the alarm in a social media post on Sunday, warning that the capsizing of the Mbuya Nehanda ferry has left learners and teachers with no affordable way back.
“In Kariba, schools are opening in 2 days, school children and many teachers who had crossed the lake to the other side for holidays after schools closed are now stranded on the other side of the Zambezi and punished with a $30+ detour of using the Karoi – Siakobvu – Mola route,” Murombedzi wrote.
“The Mbuya Nehanda boat, once a lifeline connecting the communities of Nyaminyami, that is rural Kariba and urban Kariba, capsized in Lake Kariba.”
The CCC legislator described the situation as the price of decades of rural neglect.
“This is the price of decades of rural neglect where roads remain broken, and just the access to clean water is a nightmare even beside the largest man-made lake in the world by volume of water held.”
The MP called on the government to urgently provide a shuttle bus for returning teachers and learners to Nyaminyami and to fix the Karoi-Binga road so more transport operators can ply the route safely.
The crisis stems from the Lake Kariba ferry disaster on 11 August 2026, when the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) Mbuya Nehanda ferry capsized on the lake.
The ferry was sailing from Kariba to Chalala fishing camps when it was struck by strong waves and went down.
Preliminary investigations indicate the vessel was carrying about 180 passengers, thus exceeding its carrying capacity, when it capsized after being struck by strong waves.
The ferry was an ageing vessel that had been donated to the Zimbabwean government in 1985. It was one of three ferries built by Struer Shipyard in Denmark and shipped into Zimbabwe in 1985, making it 41 years old at the time of the accident.
At least 97 people died in what has been described as the worst marine disaster in the country’s history.
The Kariba community has been without a ferry service since the Mbuya Nehanda capsized.
For the people of Nyaminyami Rural District, considered to be the least developed district in all of Zimbabwe, the ferry was not a luxury but the only viable link.
By water, the route between Kariba Urban and Chalala is only about 64km, compared to 437km by road from Karoi to Chalala.
