Chiefs celebrate recognition, development gains

Gibson Mhaka

As Zimbabwe commemorates its 46th Independence anniversary at Maphisa Growth Point today, traditional leaders in Matabeleland South have hailed the decision to host this year’s national celebrations in Matobo District, describing the move as a historic recognition of the province’s rich heritage and untapped potential.

This year’s celebrations are held under the theme Zim@46 – Unity and Development Towards Vision 2030.

The theme dove­tails with the Gov­ern­ment’s broader national devel­op­ment agenda, which seeks to trans­form Zim­b­abwe into an upper middle-income eco­nomy by 2030 through inclus­ive growth, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment and social cohe­sion.

The event is expec­ted to draw about 50 000 people from across the coun­try’s 10 provinces.

Chiefs from the province have said the move reflects the Second Repub­lic’s com­mit­ment to inclus­ive devel­op­ment and the devol­u­tion agenda being cham­pioned by Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa.

Speak­ing ahead of the fest­iv­it­ies, Chief Mathe, whose jur­is­dic­tion cov­ers parts of Matobo and Umz­ing­wane dis­tricts, said the province was buzz­ing with excite­ment over an event they “never expec­ted” to host.

“We are happy that the Inde­pend­ence cel­eb­ra­tions are com­ing to Matabele­land South Province. It’s something we didn’t expect, and we want to thank Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa for his devol­u­tion policy, which has seen the rota­tion of national events such as these cel­eb­ra­tions,” he said.

Chief Mathe noted that the event has acted as a cata­lyst for rapid infra­struc­ture growth.

“A lot of devel­op­ment has been wit­nessed in all the province’s seven dis­tricts. We have been recog­nised in a big way, and a lot of devel­op­ment has been wit­nessed across all the province’s seven dis­tricts,” he said.

“The leg­acy projects being imple­men­ted will out­live the cel­eb­ra­tions, and we are grate­ful to the Gov­ern­ment and the Second Repub­lic.”

Chief Masendu from Bulilima Dis­trict said host­ing the event has already brought tan­gible devel­op­ment to the province.

“This is a pos­it­ive devel­op­ment, and as tra­di­tional lead­ers from Matabele­land South, we are very grate­ful. The host­ing of the Inde­pend­ence cel­eb­ra­tions in Maph­isa has put our province on the map,” he said.

“We have seen roads being rehab­il­it­ated, con­struc­tion of school blocks and labor­at­or­ies, and bore­holes being drilled. These devel­op­ments have a great impact on people’s lives.”

Chief Masendu also high­lighted key projects linked to the event, includ­ing devel­op­ments at the homestead of the late Vice-pres­id­ent and Father Zim­b­abwe, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and the con­struc­tion of a voca­tional train­ing centre in his hon­our.

“That train­ing centre will go a long way in bene­fit­ing youths from this province and bey­ond. This devel­op­ment comes as a res­ult of host­ing the Inde­pend­ence cel­eb­ra­tions. And we want to express our grat­it­ude to Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa for his philo­sophy of leav­ing no one and no place behind,” he said.

“As chiefs, we assure all vis­it­ors com­ing to Maph­isa of warm hos­pit­al­ity. They are wel­come to our rain­bow province.”

Chief Bhidi from Kezi echoed sim­ilar sen­ti­ments, say­ing the province has wit­nessed sig­ni­fic­ant trans­form­a­tion due to Gov­ern­ment pro­grammes.

“We have seen a lot of devel­op­ment across the province, and this is a res­ult of the Gov­ern­ment’s devol­u­tion policy. As tra­di­tional lead­ers, we are thrilled and warmly wel­come people to Maph­isa for these cel­eb­ra­tions,” he said.

Extend­ing his grat­it­ude to the Head of State and Government, Chief Bhidi said Pres­id­ent Mnangagwa’s focus on rural indus­tri­al­isa­tion was bear­ing fruit.

“We also extend our sin­cere appre­ci­ation to Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa for the leg­acy projects being imple­men­ted in our com­munit­ies, which will con­tinue to bene­fit our people long after the cel­eb­ra­tions,” he said.

“The Pres­id­ent has shown us that he is a man of his word. By bring­ing the cel­eb­ra­tions here, he has brought the eyes of the nation to Matobo. We thank him for the dams, the clin­ics, and the refur­bished roads that our people are now using.

“These leg­acy projects are a gift to our chil­dren, and we thank the Second Repub­lic for hon­our­ing us with this oppor­tun­ity,” said Chief Bhidi.

The chiefs noted that infra­struc­ture upgrades, improved water access, and edu­ca­tional facil­it­ies are among the last­ing bene­fits of host­ing the national event.

The Gov­ern­ment has emphas­ised that the rota­tion of national events is part of efforts to ensure equit­able devel­op­ment across all provinces, in line with Vis­ion 2030.

Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa has con­sist­ently under­scored the import­ance of tra­di­tional lead­er­ship, as provided for in the Con­sti­tu­tion, and has urged chiefs to take a lead­ing role in driv­ing devel­op­ment within their com­munit­ies.