The Sunday News
MANY who lived in the Midlands Province’s mineral rich town of Zvishavane in the early 80s would remember Kandodo Beer Garden, as one of the most popular drinking spots in the town.
This is where Shabanie Mine employees, particularly those who stayed in Kandodo Township, would cool off on a beer or two after a long day’s toil. The beer garden was famous for selling a highly intoxicating locally made opaque brew, ndege, which never ran out at Kandodo Beer Garden.
Ndege was brewed just a stone’s throw away from the beer garden hence its reliable and abundant availability.
Most locals in Zvishavane are convinced that the high alcoholic content in ndege was deliberate by owners of capital, to pacify workers and make them forget the exploitation they were being subjected to. Marxist scholars and labour activists would certainly concur.
Ndege is the Shona name for an aeroplane. Tales, in the mining town have it that after drinking ndege, one would feel “high” under its influence, as if aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. So the beer was called ndege. The demise of Shabanie Mine led to a rundown of a number facilities in Zvishavane, as the mine no longer had the capacity to continue operating most of its social amenities.
Most structures turned into white elephants and Kandodo Beer Garden was not spared. The closure of Kandodo Beer Garden was the last time the Zvishavane community, particularly those from Kandodo Township, ever heard of their favourite local brew.
After decades of the beer garden lying idle, and ndege now domiciled in the annals of history and many a folk’s fond memory, the facility has since rediscovered the dear self it once was to the Kandodo community.
This time around it is offering a different kind of “ndege”, not to the tired mine employees, but to children from the township and beyond. The beer garden is no longer offering the highly intoxicating ndege brew that made many feel like they were airborne, but it now gives wings to local children to soar the sky in pursuit of their dreams.
This is after the facility was turned into a satellite secondary school by the Zvishavane Town Council working together with the local Member of the National Assembly, Cde John Holder and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
The former “chill spot” where tired and sometimes hopeless adults would drown their sorrows in the famous ndege brew, or kill time after a long day selling their labour for chickenfeed, is now a runway for dreams for local children. It is now George Chipadza Secondary School, where over 400 local children, do not kill time, but use the finite resource to carve their futures.
George Chipadza is one of Zvishavane’s heroes, a former councillor who is late now, but is greatly revered in the town for his unwavering stance in championing development. Thus authorities named the new school in his honour.
“The idea came about in 2013 when as a community we felt that children from Kandodo were travelling long distances to access secondary school education. We sat down as community leaders to brainstorm on how best we could deal with the challenges. That is when we identified Kandodo Beer Garden that had been lying idle for ages. We approached the local authorities to assist us in negotiating with Shabanie Mine on the possibility of housing a satellite school there.
“Shabanie Mine agreed immediately and we started working on renovating the abandoned structure. In no time we had given it life and it was ready to accommodate the first intake of Form One pupils in January 2014,” said Cde Holder, the legislator for Zvishavane Ngezi constituency.
After the renovations the large hall inside Kandodo Beer Garden was partitioned into five classrooms, the counter from where beer was sold is now the bursar’s office, while a room at the back of the bar where the ndege brew was stored in huge tanks was turned into the deputy headmaster’s office.
The bar manager’s officer in now the school head’s office, while a room, whose previous purpose could not be immediately established was turned into the staff room.
Concrete tables and benches in the beer garden, common at most community beer halls, where imbibers lounge and catch some fresh air while enjoying their beer, have now been turned into study zones for children to do their extra studies after normal class time.
“With the help of local businesspeople we managed to make this dream come true. Now our children have a secondary school close to their homes and they no longer need to travel long distances as was the case previously,” Cde Holder said.
Mimosa Mining Company donated furniture to the school worth about $22 000 to allow the project a smooth take off.
The council run school started off with an enrollment of 232 Form One pupils, but the enrollment has since grown to 467, comprising 233 boys and 234 girls, who make up the two Form 1 and Form Two streams that are housed at the school.
Deputy Head at the school, Mr Aaron Chitereka told Sunday News that the school now has a staff complement of 13 teachers up from the initial seven who were there when the school was opened.
“We are optimistic that the school will grow into one of the biggest and best secondary schools in Zvishavane. So far we have five Form One classes and five Form Two classes and as the years go we will increase our streams until we have classes up to Form Four.
“This school services about seven primary schools, which makes it critical to this community. As such we are frantically working towards its growth to ensure that we are able to accommodate all the pupils coming from the primary schools around us every year,” he said.
Zvishavane Town Council secretary Mr Tinoda Mukutu said efforts were underway to construct the main George Chipadza Secondary School in Makwasha high-density suburb.
Two by two classroom blocks are under construction with one of the blocks almost complete and left with final touches, while the other one is being roofed.
“Once we finish roofing the other block we will start on the ablution facilities. This should be completed by the end of the year because our aim is that the Form One and Two classes that are at the satellite site in Kandodo be the first to be accommodated at the new site as Form Two and Three classes next year. We will continue constructing more classroom blocks and facilities until we establish a fully-fledged school at the site,” he said.
George Chipadza Secondary School becomes the third secondary school in Zvishavane urban, after Mandava and Zvishavane High Schools, and its establishment will go a long way in easing the pressure on the two schools in absorbing Grade Seven graduates from numerous primary schools that are in the town.
Midlands Provincial Education Director Mrs Agnes Gudo commended Zvishavane Town Council for embarking on the secondary school project.
“As Government we are happy with such a development. We fully support the initiative and we will be working with council to ensure that they manage to complete construction of the main school in Makwasha. We worked with them and assisted them to ensure that they followed due process for the school to be registered. We inspected the facilities and the former beer garden, and we were satisfied that they met the required standards. I must reiterate that we are in full support of the project and we would want to see it through,” she said.
For children in a mining community like Zvishavane where illegal gold panning has become the main source of livelihood, George Chipadza Secondary School will make a difference.
Some children in the community have not bothered going beyond Grade Seven with their schooling and quickly turn to fortune hunting, after failing to secure places at the two high schools that were available prior. George Chipadza Secondary School comes as renewed hope for many local folks and renews many dreams that for a long time threatened to crumble.
