Devolution funds help close infrastructure gap in Masvingo
DEVOLUTION funds allocated to Masvingo City Council by Government have contributed to significant improvements in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and economic development, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for residents.
The local authority has implemented several infrastructure developments, including the construction of a new school, clinic, a waste management project as well as the provision of clean water to the people.
These have been implemented as a direct response to the gaps identified by the Zimbabwe urban livelihoods assessments done in previous years to find the challenges being faced by the urban population and influence the formulation of interventions that can address these.
Speaking during the ongoing urban livelihood assessment, Masvingo district development coordinator and provincial coordinator for the ongoing assessment Mr Roy Hove said communities were now able to access services close to where they stayed.
Of particular interest, he said, the construction of a secondary school in Rujeko suburb had brought relief to children who were walking more than 5km to the nearest secondary school.
“Rujeko Secondary School is a project which was started by Council in 2021 with the assistance of Government through the devolution programme. This project came about as a response to the need that was identified in this area where there was no secondary school apart from two primary schools that were feeding into schools that were across the highway leading to Beitbridge,” he said.
Mr Hove said the response was meant to bring education closer to the children living around the area to cut the distance from their homes to the next secondary school.
A total of US$610 000 was committed to the construction of Rujeko Secondary School and so far, about US$360 000 has been channeled into the project.
Masvingo city operations engineer, William Madzivadondo, said the plan was to construct 12 classroom blocks, a science lab and an administration block.
So far, seven blocks have been constructed. “As City of Masvingo, we are moving with the national Vision 2030,” he said. “We currently have a number of infrastructural developments being rolled out by the city. At Rujeko Secondary school, we started in 2021 and each year, we have been building two blocks, so currently we have six blocks for learning in 2024 we want to construct three including the science lab.”
Rujeko Secondary School acting deputy head Mr Douglas Zizhou said the demand for a school in the area had been high as witnessed by the enrollment figures which have grown each year since 2022.
“In 2022, we started off with 210 students which was basically 50 percent girls and 50 percent boys,” he said. “In 2023, our enrollment grew to 362 and then in 2024 it grew to 520 students. There is a great demand in terms of education because prior to this, there was no secondary school in Rujecko residential community, so most of the learners had to walk slightly over 5km to the nearest school at Ndarama High School.
“The project has come as a great relief, especially for the parents and the community at large in terms of the protection of the child from the hustles of having to commute or walk a long distance given a scenario that there is a roundabout which is congested along the Beitbridge-Harare road. The children were prone to accidents as they tried to cross the road.”
Residents of Rujeko expressed gratitude for the school which they said would ensure that all children had access to equal opportunities in life.
Said Mrs Fadzai Mutikani who has been a resident of Rujeko since the early ‘90s: “My children were born here and they were supposed to do their secondary school at this school but all we had back then was a ground. We had lost hope that this school would be constructed. Now that the school has been built, our grandchildren are going to benefit and we are happy.”
Another resident, Ms Sophia Gumbiti, said her child had enrolled for form 1 at the school this year.
“I have a child doing form 1 at Rujeko High School and I am just happy. We have watched this school grow from the time construction started and now our children don’t have to travel long distances to school,” she said.
Mr Onismo Charumbira said for children to be crossing a busy road to access the school was a recipe for disaster hence the construction of the school had come at an opportune time.
“We are happy that we now have a school nearby. The nearest school was Ndarama high school which is more than 5km from here so the children would walk all the way across the Harare-Beitbridge road. This school is servicing all the surrounding areas and we are happy. We are thankful to Government for providing the funds and to the Council which is running the school,” he said.
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