Minerals sentence Mberengwa to permanent poverty

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I wrote this article almost a decade ago and was published by Nehanda Radio. I am publishing an edited version again in protest to the pathetic state of Mberengwa despite all the minerals being mined in the area.

By Sibanengi Dube

MBERENGWA- It is sweet to be home, but the same cannot be said with reference to where I was nurtured: Mberengwa. For the past 11 years I never got the chance to spend more than a week in the home rural district. This time around, I camped in my dusty and poverty stricken Mberengwa for three weeks.

The only solace I enjoyed was the company of my family members, but the rest was horror. Yes, Mberengwa was allowed to slide back into medieval period. I am sorry to sound unpatriotic, but allow me to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon. My opinion should not be interpreted as spews of hate for my beloved district of birth. I love Mberengwa and my fellow villagers.

I am just being honest and brave enough to call a thug a thug and not a gentleman. This is however not a dirge, but a citation of what needs to be attended to in my home district. I drove the width and breath of Mberengwa attending community meetings, funerals, church services and weddings.

My German made sedan absorbed serious nervous tension from the pathetic roads. At one moment the car flashed ‘a no road sign’ on the dash board and disengaged the engine. A journey that should take 20 minutes under normal circumstances takes five hours in Mberengwa. The maximum safe speed one can clock in the ugly gully roads can never be above 20 km/h.

I was greeted with hopelessness and deficiency written on the faces of most of the people I met. I started asking myself what exactly leaders of the GNU are talking about when they claim to have alleviated the people’s suffering. People are excessively skeletal as if they feed on wire.

I noted with regret that huge numbers of people throng funerals hoping to walk away with a full belly. A hungry and desperate electorate is very vulnerable as they can be easily manipulated with carrots like rabbits. I asked myself what exactly the previous and current Members of Parliament for Mberengwa were doing for the past 31 years, except dolling out agricultural implements during election years.

It dawned on me that the Zanu PF zealots who have been snatching the constituency in my area have been doing nothing for the district other than lining their pockets. The coming generation of Mberengwa shall one day urinate on the graves of our previous Members of Parliament in denunciation of the kind of deception they have subjected us to.

I belong to a generation which has a lot of explaining to do to the posterity. We shall explain what we were doing were doing as the district was being gobbled by Zanu PF functionaries. Of course the genuine answer is that most of us did nothing. Aren’t we ashamed? MDC is also guilty of failing to serve the people of Mberengwa from Zanu PF? How come that chicken voted for Nandos in Mberengwa since 1980?

I am yet to think of any place in the universe with gravel roads that stretch for more than 200 kms in these post-modern periods. I was in the rural parts of Mozambique recently and I never saw such long stretches of gravel roads. There are no roads to talk about in Mberengwa. What were once gravel roads are now deep streams? In some areas along a road from Mberengwa offices to Mnene Mission, what resemble the road are heaps of boulders that mercilessly wreck cars.

The other worse part of the road is in Mwembe around the home area of the late Richard Hove who was our MP and Senator for a combined period of more than 20 years. This is the same area where another late MP Byron Hove was domiciled. The pack of Mberengwa legislators who virtually produced nothing for the district includes Ben Nkomo, Josphat .Shumba, Jorum Gumbo, Makhosini Nhlongwane, Rugare Gumbo, Mai Shirichena, Jabulani Mangena, Chiratidzo Mabuwa and Alum Mpofu. As to why the previous Minister of Transport, Jorum Gumbo, who hails from Mberengwa, never saw the wisdom of tarring the road up-to West Nicholson is to preposterous to merit even as a passing sneer.

Mberengwa should be the most developed district in Zimbabwe because it is gifted with rich mineral deposits. The district is the only site in the world that produces K-grade emeralds from Sandawana and Masaga Mines. Emeralds were the most sought after minerals throughout the 1960s to the 1990s. Some of us are still to understand why the emerald glitter managed to elude Mberengwa for all these decades. How did that happen? Can anyone assist me to understand why Christopher Chigumba and his late nephew Tonderai were allowed to siphon tonnes of emeralds from Masaga Mine to Harare? The former Zanu MP for Chitungwiza arrived in Mweza range near Makuva Secondary School an average business man driving a Peugoet 504 station wagon but left a decade later being piloted in chopper. The wealth he acquired will be enjoyed by Chigumba generations to come, while the Mtembas, who were indigenous owners of the mine can no longer afford a decent meal a day.

Emeralds from Sandawana and Masaga were parachuted out of the district in full view of MPs, Councillors and Chief, who are the custodians of development in Mberengwa. This bloody mistake which was committed by the past generation must not be allowed to continue. What was left as evidence of cremation are deep mining dumps along Mweza range which are now a danger to livestock. The chrome from Nyala Mine suffered the same fate where the exploiters developed an air-strip to fly in and out with proceeds of our chrome without investing even a cent in developing roads, schools or clinics. Whenever the price of Chrome increase on the market, strange characters start streaming to Inyala sweet-talking their way to our chrome.

Buchwa Mine with one of the biggest iron ore deposits in the world was mined dry leaving Mberengwa nothing to hang on to. Only Satan can explain where the proceeds of these minerals ended up at. What is clear is that the final destination of the minerals was never Mberengwa. Nothing is saying anything about it. It looks like nothing will change in the near future as Mberengwa minerals continue to be shipped out of the district.

Mberengwa people should put some brakes on politics and accelerate on exploitation of their natural resources. Economic emancipation in Mberengwa far much exceeds the benefits of pushing party politics. Mberengwa population is split into two counter political groupings, MDC and Zanu PF, which are blinding people from working together in reclaiming their minerals.

The only stretch of tar starts at Matedzi Primary School, passes Chamakudo Primary School and turns to Mataga Growth point, but fades off before the Post office. This has been the situation since 2000. This tarred strip has fallen prey to Zanu PF politicians who use it as a campaign pawn during election years. No attempt was even made to tar a road leading to a referral hospital, Musume. Nothing, literally sentencing patients to death.

The tarred strip has been gradually extended by a few centimetres every election year as Zanu PF candidates blindfold voters. These processes were abruptly brought to a stand still as soon as the ballots were cast.

My other port of call was Gwai Primary where I did my primary education, 25 years ago. The school was dilapidated by the time I paid the visit. The same paint that we left in 1986 is still hanging loosely on the walls. This pathetic situation is not only limited to Gwai School, but is shared by hundreds of other schools that are dotted around the district.

Most rural townships seem to have disappeared. Gwai Township resembles a ghost spot as 98% of the shops stand abandoned and collapsing. The tale is the same at Makuva Township, Danga, Dunda and Gwarava. The buildings are crumbling down as the ugly economic situation in the rural areas continues to bite deep into the pockets of the general populace.

What is clear is that the district is decaying in full view of its residents. There is dust and poverty. Is this the Mberengwa we all want? People have been literally reduced into beggars. Everyone including teachers and other civil servants are not even ashamed to openly solicit for drinks or food from anyone coming from the Diaspora.

Statements like: “Ndisiire one kashamwari, haungadzokeri ndisina kumwa drink yako,” are now communal anthems in Mberengwa. What is encouraging however is that the majority of the people have now come to terms with the fact that MDC has the potential to bring better living conditions than Zanu PF.

Mberengwa is 103kms away from the nearest town of Zvishavane in the Midlands Province. The district is inhabited by mostly Karangas, but has sprinkles of Ndebele speaking people.

—Sibanengi Dube is the publisher of Zimbabwe Observer