Sanyatwe: Born to serve
GROWING up in a family of active members of the ruling Zanu-PF party in Rusape, Cde Chido Sanyatwe was indoctrinated into national ideologies long before her peers knew what it meant to be patriotic. All the night vigils her parents would attend together with other villagers, and pep talks on Zimbabwe’s narrative of the liberation struggle, heightened her desire to contribute to national development.
Even when she got married, Cde Sanyatwe (born Chido Machona) carried aspirations to her husband’s rural home, in Nyanga, which was to become her political bedrock.
Today Cde Sanyatwe can play a part in national development following her election into the National Assembly as the Member of Parliament for Nyanga North after romping to victory in the country’s harmonised elections on July 30.
“My passion is with the people. I want to continue to serve the people,” she said during an interview at her rural home in Kagore Village in Nyanga North recently.
Her triumph in the just ended elections where she garnered over 14 000 votes, with all her councillors sweeping all the local authority seats, is an affirmation of her hard work and philanthropic exertion, which have become her trademark in and around the constituency.
Humble and unassuming, Cde Sanyatwe, who is married to Brigadier-General Anselem Nhamo Sanyatwe, has endeared herself with the community, which is pinning its hopes on her to develop the neglected area.
“Nyanga North is endowed with natural resources such as gold, asbestos and vast plantations. However, all these resources have not benefited locals, and transformed their lives,” she said.
“People of Nyanga North are in great need of a lot of things, chiefly water for both domestic and farming use.”
Giving an example of Gairezi River that runs across the constituency, Cde Sanyatwe said the water could be harnessed for irrigation of hundreds of hectares for various cash crops, whilst also feeding into homes.
That development would also result in employment creation for hundreds of youths in the area.
“The youths here are in need of jobs. On the other hand, locals want to partner with established stakeholders who are already running thriving mining activities in and around Nyanga North,” she said.
Food security, power telecommunication network, lack of good health facilities and high levels of unemployment are among the challenges facing people in Nyanga North.
Cde Sanyatwe said the same problems confronted her in 2000 when she got married to Brig-General Sanyatwe, hence her decision to reach out to the community to alleviate suffering by initiating several community-based projects.
Shocked by the high levels of poverty among the locals, Cde Sanyatwe started buying farming inputs for the locals in 2001, which she distributed to less priviledged families, to improve food security at household level.
She coupled the initiative with a food for work scheme, targeting hundreds of unemployed youths in the area.
The more she interacted with the community, the more Cde Sanyatwe realised the problems that the community faced were deep-seated.
“Water for use was erratic. Women and girls would travel long distances to fetch water for domestic use. Within the same strides they were also struggling to feed their families,” she recalled.
Touched by the plight of the community on food security, she introduced a poultry project, which resulted in 1 300 women receiving both training and a starter pack.
The initiative marked the beginning of her philanthropic journey. In no time, she was crossing the lenghth and breadth of the constituency, working with various age groups in a number of communitybased programmes to better their lives.
The projects included the construction of an Early Child Development block in Ward 7, assisting in the completion of Mukunza Clinic, construction of a mother’s shelter in Ward 9 as well as a cattle dip. During that time Cde Sanyatwe also donated 60 bags of cement to Chapatarongo Secondary School.
Encouraged by her community projects and her desire to serve Zanu-PF in Manicaland where she was the vice chairperson of the business and liaison portfolio, Cde Sanyatwe was encouraged by several people to actively participate in politics in her own community.
Not sure if the encouragement was in good faith, Cde Sanyatwe consulted her husband, who did not seem keen on the idea. “He told me that philanthropic work was totally different from politics, adding that it was a decision that I had to make on my own, without undue influence from him,” recalled the mother of five.
By then the pressure for her to contest as a member of the National Assembly for the area was mounting.
Cde Sanyatwe continued with her community projects, while pondering on the decision to take.
At the end of 2017, Cde Sanyatwe eventually threw caution to the wind, and declared her interest to stand in as the MP for the area. As soon as had she declared her intention, some people within the ruling party openly declared that they would not support her endeavour.
Their hostility came a little bit too late, because Cde Sanyatwe had steeled herself for any eventualities she was likely to encounter in her bid to carve her own piece of history in politics.
“I was unnerved by the threats. I also had no reason to worry because my support lay with the grassroots people. They knew what I was capable of doing and they were ready to vote me into power,” she said. And they did, overwhelmingly too. Cde Sanyatwe romped to victory ahead of all her competitors - all male - when she garnered 14 160 votes. She takes over from Cde Hubert Nyanhongo.
Cde Sanyatwe attributed her victory to hard work, after spending months meeting her supporters in their constituencies, which later culminated in huge rallies.
“Working with the people is the best strategy for any community developer. I never imagined that the projects that we did with the community would take me to this level,” said an elated Cde Sanyatwe.
While conceding that victory did not come on a silver platter, Cde Sanyatwe said working with the community was key. She implored aspiring female candidates to establish themselves within their communities before vying for election.
“Women have a better chances of winning than their male colleagues, once they connect themselves with the community.” The MP-elect, who is currently studying for a BSC Honours in Sociology and Gender Studies with the Women University in Africa- is now looking ahead.
“We are continuing with our work and one of the immediate tasks is to ensure that the community gets water, health and education whilst pushing for employment creation opportunities.
“We are also lobbying for the construction of the Rwenya Bridge that was washed away in 2012, cutting us from Mashonaland East Province.”
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