adminGeorge Maponga Masvingo Bureau
Chivi Rural District Council is pushing for Ngundu Growth Point to be granted town status to enable it to fully capitalise on its proximity to Tugwi-Mukosi Dam. The council has since approached Government on the issue.
Ngundu is one of the biggest growth points in Masvingo province and besides being a few kilometres away from Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, the urban settlement is also located along the country’s gateway to South Africa.
The coming on board of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam has further broadened its growth potential, which is likely to be anchored on tourism and agro-processing. Chivi RDC chief executive Mr Tariro Matavire said his council was optimistic about Ngundu’s prospects of becoming a town.
Mr Matavire said its proximity to Tugwi-Mukosi Dam was central to the urban settlement’s future growth.
“‘We will soon be tabling our bid for Government to upgrade Ngundu Growth Point to a town because we believe there is vast potential at the growth point which is likely to undergo exponential growth, thanks to its closeness to Tugwi-Mukosi Dam,” he said.
“Ngundu is only less than 30 kilometres from Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam and there are opportunities for its growth into a town on the back of the anticipated opening of hotels and other recreational facilities, not to mention processing companies that will want to set up shop to process produce grown under irrigation using Tugwi-Mukosi Dam water.”
Mr Matavire said upgrading Ngundu into a town will also create employment as financial institutions and other bigger companies would stampede to open businesses at the sprawling growth point. “There are real good prospects for Ngundu to grow into a major town that will become Chivi district’s flagship urban settlement,” said Mr Matavire.
The local authority will have to tap into Ngundu’s scenic topography to lure investors who will establish hotels while the growth point’s strategic location creates scope for setting up a vibrant fisheries industry backed by fishing from the adjacent Tugwi-Mukosi Dam.
Chivi RDC is on a high after President Mnangagwa made a proclamation for the establishment of a business centre opposite Chivi turn-off into Chivi Turn-Off Rural Service Centre.
Council has already put in motion plans to set up an urban residential area and an industrial area at Chivi turn-off which is also strategically located along the busy Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway.
However, it is the planned upgrade of Ngundu into a town that has created a buzz in Chivi which is potentially one of the richest districts in Masvingo owing to its vast agricultural potential engendered by the existence of several underutilised dams and perennial rivers that can harnessed for irrigation. Apart from the provincial capital from where the province also derives its name, Masvingo province boasts two other towns – Chiredzi and Mpandawana.
Online Reporter