Bayayi villagers, touch, smell, feel devolution
It’s around 9am in Bayayi Village, in Mberengwa East, Midlands Province and there are over 35 villagers, men and woman gathered at a building that is under construction.
The village is about 30km from Mataga Growth Point and over 120km from Zvishavane town where there are health centers in case the villagers are in need of medical attention.
Of these villagers, one of them gave birth inside her house after failing to get to a health facility in time and is here to take part in the construction of a clinic to avoid home birth for her and other woman joining her.
There are about 14 woman and 20 men some holding shovels and picks, some standing while other are seated at a building structure that is under construction in Ward 20, in Mberengwa District.
These man and women are villagers in Bayayi Village under Chief Ngungumbane in Mberengwa East and are gathered here to see off the construction of their clinic.
For years, the villagers have been travelling to Mataga Growth Point for medical services and once the construction of the clinic is complete and its starts operating- it means they would no longer be travelling almost 60km to and from the health center.
Bayayi clinic is one of the many projects that are being undertaken by Mberengwa Rural Development Council using the ZWL$7million devolution fund they received from the Government.
Besides Bayayi clinic which is under construction, the RDC which has 37 Wards is using the devolution funds is rehabilitating primary and secondary schools and rehabilitating roads.
Ms Olivia Chanda (35) is one of the villagers assisting with manual labour in the construction of the clinic.
Her role is going to the river with others to carry river sand and she has to bring her own 20litre bucket for that worthy cause.
“I am glad to be part of this winning team that is constructing a clinic that will benefit all of us at the end of the day. We thank the Government for the devolution funds and our target to finish this is before the end of the year,” said Ms Chanda a mother of three children.
She said she gave birth to her second child at her home after failing to get transport to get to the health center at Mataga Growth Point-a development which is now a motivating factor for her and other woman who don’t want to travel long distances for health care.
“I don’t want a repeat of what happened when I was forced to give birth to my second son at home. Its not a situation I wish for any expecting mother and therefore the need for us to have our own clinic here,” said Mrs Chanda.
Ward 13 Councillor, Florence Khumalo said the clinic was coming at the right time when population was increasing while there are no health facilities in the area.
She said council had provided cement and other building materials while the villagers were coming in with labour and pit and river sand which they get within their locality.
“This clinic which is under Chief Ngungumbane area will serve three other Wards which is a welcome development in terms of service delivery. The villagers must have such services within their Wards in line with the devolution agenda set by the Government,” said Cllr Khumalo.
Chief Ngungumbane said he was glad that the Governments devolution agenda has taken off in earnest in his area as evidenced by the construction of Bayayi clinic among other programmes.
“As a community will applaud the Government for fulfilling its constitutional mandate of devolving services to the people. It’s a positive development as service delivery is now at the door step of citizens. People now realise that devolution is now a reality and not a dream as they can see, feel, smell and touch devolution. People no longer travel long distances to access healthcare services which is a basic human right. It offers locals to participate in the devolution mantra as locals are involved in the construction of the clinic and all developmental projects in rural areas and beyond,” he said.
Mberengwa RDC chief executive officer, Mr Thompson Maeresera said they have received a total of ZWL$7million from the Government to date.
The amount he said has gone towards purchasing of a tipper truck, a back hoe loader and the construction of two clinics and rehabilitation of roads.
“First and for most I would like to thank our President for this Devolution vision which has seen us the local authorities receiving funds to push development in our respective areas. We have been able to start or compete some huge capital projects we haven’t been able to pursue on our own because of financial constraints. But because of the devolution funds, as Mberengwa District we have been able to start several projects such as the construction of two clinic, one at Bayayi and Marirahwongwe in Mberengwa West. These are at different stages of completion and we are very happy that the programmes are going on well.We are also busy rehabilitating our roads as well as rehabilitating our schools thorough council funds and help of our stake holders. We have 37 wards all in all and the funds will go a long way in assisting in service delivery and pushing the devolution agenda,” he said.
Mr Maeresera said they were also forging partnerships with their Members of Parliament and their Senator Sibusiso Moyo (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and chief and other stakeholders to see to it that they have tangible devolution projects.
He said water has been a challenge for the district which had 148 boreholes drying up last year, leaving 615 functioning.
“Water is a challenge and as such, we are pleading to have one ZINWA catchment area for our two growth points,” said Mr Maeresera.
Council chairperson Nyembesi Shumba said they managed to surface Zvishavane – Mataga road which she said is of great importance in the face of development and mitigating against Covid-19 with council funds and partnership of other road authorities.
She said her council was grateful to the Government led by President Mnangagwa which availed the devolution funds so that they are able to improve their livelihoods.
“We have surfaced roads making it easy for us to attract investments and even take any Covid-19 suspected cases to isolation center in Zvishavane. We were worried that it was going to be difficult to mitigate against the spread of Covid – 19 in the district. The availability of clinics means our people have access to health which is a right they now enjoy,” said Cllr Shumba.
She said after the construction of the clinic, plans were underway to construct houses for nurses and availing running water.
“We want to have houses for nurses and other staff members after which we have running water. We are planning big and devolution funds are making it possible for us,” said Cllr Shumba.
Besides the devolution funds, she said the Government has started a project to surface some of the roads among them one that links Mberengwa District offices and West Nicholson in Matabeleland South province.
The Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Larry Mavhima said mberengwa district is endowed with vast mineral resources, Mberengwa District will certainly grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by broadening its revenue collection base, among other initiatives.
He urged the RDC to implement an effective revenue collection strategy that targets tax contributions from small scale miners operating in the district to complement Governments devolution agenda.
“We should look around and see what our economy is made of. Here in Mberengwa, we are a step further as we have minerals so we should see to it how we can collect revenue from small scale miners,” he said.
Government allocated the funds to be shared among the 10 provinces based on a number of factors such as poverty levels in all rural districts, quality of infrastructure and size of population.
Special mention goes to all our Chiefs , Senator , Member of Parliament Mberengwa Community at large for their unwavering support on the role and great assistance they are playing on all council projects .