The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
Bulawayo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Cde Judith Ncube has commended the Second Republic’s deliberate efforts in developing Bulawayo by addressing various challenges that dogged the metropolitan province.
She said she was happy that the Government through her office made several life transforming developments in Bulawayo, highlighting industry revival that gave employment to a number of people as part of the success stories.
Reflecting on her five-year term, Minister Ncube told Sunday News in an interview that her time was characterised by various challenges, achievements, lessons and cherishable moments. She, however, applauded the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa for entrusting her with the task as well as guiding her in the execution of her duties.
“Let me start by saying I am very thankful to the President who gave me the task to run this office. For the past five years, it was a unique experience as I would get to know what I did not know through being taught by people who are Bulawayo residents or other people coming out of Bulawayo. Various people would visit my office with requests, advices, informing us on how we could handle certain things which was really a learning curve and I benefited a lot from the people. The past five years really made me grow in knowledge as well as working with people. However, the biggest lesson was learning how to be patient enough and listening to people when they are speaking,” she said.
Minister Ncube said the province was facing various challenges but the Government was always equal to the task by providing solutions on time.
“I was appointed to a province which forms the axis of road and rail links with the rest of the country and the Southern African Region. It is the manufacturing and industrial centre with a presence of industries. However, the industries needed recapitalisation and retooling. It is gratifying that the Government prioritised resuscitation of these industries that were affected by sanctions. The re-opening of the Cold Storage Company (CSC) is an example which has transformed the livelihoods of smallholder livestock farmers who supply 90 percent of slaughtering stock.
“At Zambezi Tannery, a new processing plant was installed to kick-start leather production and restore the value chains of the leather industry. Downstream activities have been revived through manufacturing of leather products such as bags, belts and wallets. Grain bag production was also enhanced at Treger Group through plant modernisation. Local production substituted importation of grain bags saving foreign currency while 200 jobs were created,” she said.
Minister Ncube said at Cotton Pro Company, production lines were revived while the rehabilitation and refurbishment of National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) coaches, wagons and locomotives increased fleet and improved reliability in the movement of goods and services.
Turning to the health sector, Minister Ncube said there were a number of challenges that included shortage of doctor’s accommodation particularly after the burning down of their facilities at Mpilo Central Hospital.
“I remember at some point we were given about 40 doctors as a province by the ministry and some ended up going back to Harare as there was shortage of accommodation. We had a building at Mpilo which was burnt down and that heavily affected us as we had to ask various tertiary institutions with facilities to accommodate the doctors. Government chipped in, renovated and modernised their accommodation facilities.
“As part of efforts to improve health service delivery, Thorngrove Hospital, Ekusileni, Bartley Memorial Block at United Bulawayo Hospitals were refurbished to meet World Health Organisation standards and to decongest other hospitals in the city in the management of Covid-19. A Radiotherapy Unit at Mpilo, Obstetric Fistula Clinic and Orthopaedic Hospital were established,” she said.
Wood technology products at Bulawayo Prison
Minister Ncube further highlighted that Covid-19 was one of the biggest challenges as it impeded on development. She said the province also lost out on investors as a result.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic period we lost a number of our people, our health systems were put to test. We then went into lockdown, offices closed and people could not access some of the services. The pandemic was also very expensive hence money that was meant to develop our province was then channelled towards procuring Personal Protective Equipment, medicine and other resources. We also missed out on investors who wanted to assist one of the companies here in Bulawayo, Cotton Printers. The investor took people for training in Italy and Germany and when he was now in the process of sending the machinery, he then passed on within two weeks after the completion of the training and we lost out. It really closed out a lot of investors because I remember in 2019, we had gone out of the country where we met a number of diasporans including investors who wanted to pursue investment opportunities. All that died a natural death and became a challenge to our office. We are now in the process of reviving those engagements,” she said.
Minister Ncube said she realised as well during her term of office that there were a lot of vulnerable people who include widows and orphans whose properties were being taken away in legal battles. She encouraged those groups not to ignore initial papers served to them by the courts and only panic when verdicts and rulings were made.
“A number of widows approached my office telling me that they have been evicted out of the houses and do not know how the property was sold. However, fortunately because Government has proper systems, we then refer to the respective offices to try and help these vulnerable groups.
“At times we would win and at times fail. I also realised that most of the victims, when they are served with court papers, they keep them or ignore them up until a verdict is made and ultimately a messenger of court is ordered to come and evict them. My advice is that when you receive the first letter or notice, immediately attend to it so that you go and understand and defend your case where necessary,” she said. -@nyeve145
