Negotiations with the Belgian colonial authorities produced an agreement for Northern Rhodesia to build and maintain a 70-km graded laterite road from Mokambo (16 km from the Copperbelt town of Mufulira) to Chembe.
In the past four decades the superiority of the Katangan roads has reversed, with the Lubumbashi-Kasenga road deteriorating to the extent that it may take several days to reach Kasenga.