The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya
Quality service delivery, accelerated infrastructure development and access to other amenities including health and education are on most priority lists of any community in the developing world.
Like any settlement in the African countries, Beitbridge West Constituency, which is represented in parliament by Cde Metrine Mudau (Zanu-PF) has its own share of challenges and success stories.
According to the 2012 population census Beitbridge district has a rural population of 80 000 divided equally (into 40 000) among the two political constituencies. To many villagers, Cde Mdau is a hard worker while others have mixed feelings based on different perspectives mainly political ideologies.
In separate interviews people from Beitbridge West constituency agree that although the country is going through a bad economic climate there is more that needs to be done in terms of infrastructure development. In the same vein, they also noted the success stories spearheaded by the local MP and Government.
The villagers said they are concerned about bad state of roads which have raised the costs of travelling around the area shooting up yearly. In addition the villagers feel under done by lack of both primary and secondary schools, primary health centres and communication facilities.
A villager identified only as Mr Mbedzi said the local MP was working hard to address their challenges though, the current economic climate was hindering progress.
“We need to see our roads being upgraded from their current status, which has seen many transporters pulling off major routes. Although we acknowledge that we had an economic crisis, we feel with the assistance of the community we can do more,” said Mr Mbedzi.
Other villagers said more efforts had to be put to improve the state of irrigation facilities and electrification of business centres. Beitbridge paramount chief David Stauze, who also resides in the western constituency said the area had an acute shortage of water and sanitation facilities.
“Our main worry is the shortage of educational facilities (primary and secondary schools and tertiary facilities). The ideal situation is to have at least five primary schools and two secondary schools per ward. It is disheartening to see children walk for long distances to access the nearest facility. In some cases children are dropping out of school due to distance,” he said.
He said the issue of unemployment among the youths was another cause for concern in the constituency and the whole district. Chief Stauze said it was critical for development players, government, political leaders among others to consult traditional leaders and members of the community to get their buy in.
“We have a good working relations with all the political leaders in this area and I want to urge everyone to embrace a culture of togetherness, so we can move ahead with a shared vision,” said Chief Stauze.
He said access to portable water remained a major challenge for most people in the area and called for government and its partners to drill and repair more boreholes, to augment the deficit.
Chief Stauze said there were a number of opportunities, which if fully exploited may improve self-sustenance among the villagers. Cde Mudau said she had fared well under difficult conditions and was willing to seek another mandate, so that she could complete most of the projects she has initiated.
“You will note that communication challenges improved when I became a parliamentarian. Places like Tuli, Masera, Ward 13, Nottingham, and part of Toporo, Sika and Swereki and some resettlement areas now have mobile communication reception. However, we still have a challenges in areas bordering with Botswana and South Africa, where mobile telecommunications service providers are taking long to set base stations, ” she said.
She said during her tenure she has been instrumental in the construction of schools, police bases and primary health facilities. She added that through her efforts several development agencies were in the midst of repairing roads damaged by torrential rains in the last three years.
The Makakavule to Nhwali road, she said was one of the major projects underway.
“At the moment I am engaging the Rural Electrician Fund (REF) to accelerate the electrification of schools, clinics and business centres. Recently we witnessed the commissioning of Swereki Rural Electrification Project, Masera Secondary School some 100km west of Beitbridge town,” said.
The new project uses the Single Wire Earth Return (SWER) technology, a cost effective grid technology which the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) has recently adopted for use in rural areas across the country.
A total of four primary, two secondary schools, two clinics, four government offices and 4 business centres including irrigation schemes and several villages will benefit from the SWER project.
Cde Mudau also called on farmers in the area to take advantage of rural electrification and renewable energy to boost livestock production. She said they may use electricity for lighting for round the day feeding, powering mills to prepare stocks feeds, installing water pumps to shorten distances live stocks move to water and vaccinations storage among other needs.
“We are very hopeful that the radio and television reception issue will be dealt with under the impending government digitalistion programme,” said Cde Mudau.
