The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Sunday News Reporter
KUSILE Rural District Council has announced plans to industrialise Jotsholo growth point so as to establish it as a town which will be the council’s headquarters in the long term.
Kusile RDC shares offices with the Lupane Local Board. In an interview with Sunday News, Kusile RDC chief executive officer Mr Christopher Chuma said they planned on expanding Jotsholo from being a mere truck stop to becoming a full-fledged town and the first steps to do this would be to develop it into an industrial centre.
He revealed that they were working closely with renowned playwright and former Kusile councillor, Mr Cont Mhlanga, who is going to establish an abattoir in the area.
“Mr Mhlanga’s abattoir will be different in the sense that it won’t be just for slaughtering but it will be dealing with the complete process which includes value adding the blood and processing the skin. In fact, the aim will be to make use of the entire cow under one roof.
“We realised that farmers in the area, both small and large scale, have to travel long distances to get to licensed abattoirs hence with this project we will not only be able to service our own people but we will also ensure that people from surrounding areas will be able to also use the facility thereby generating money for us,” said Mr Chuma.
He revealed that they wanted to take advantage of the influx of a number of major projects in the area to construct new residential areas and attract more people to settle in Jotsholo.
“As you might know we have the Lupane State University that will soon start operating from Lupane, we also have the China Africa Sunlight company and a whole lot of other companies that have or will set up base hence we are working on a housing project to settle the prospective large numbers that will be relocating here.
“The idea is that we move from being a mere truck stop to becoming more of a town in the long run. On the other hand we cannot overlook the fact that there are a lot of trucks that pass through here on the Bulawayo- Victoria Falls highway hence the need for us to provide services so that we tap into their resources,” said Mr Chuma.
The chief executive officer said the construction of the houses was part of their plans to contribute towards the implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset).
He said they were also working at harnessing returns from the Bubi-Lupane Dam to ensure that they get an investor who would be able to sponsor projects in the area by exploiting the dam, which is 100 percent full.
“With that dam we can have a number of projects like irrigation schemes, which is why we are also working at identifying players we can work with who can help us benefit from that dam,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief executive officer said plans were now at an advanced stage for them to move their offices from Lupane centre to Jotsholo. He, however, revealed that this was now dependent on Government funding.
“What you should realise is that we have been operating as a single local authority together with the Lupane Town Board but with our functions now divided we now have to branch out and establish our own offices and as alluded to earlier these will be in Jotsholo.
“We are now simply awaiting funding from the Government after which we will have to get rid of our current offices but to do that we will also have to liaise with the town board, we cannot embark on this process alone,” said Mr Chuma.
