adminDaniel Chigunwe Mash Central Correspondent
VICE PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga says devolution is not meant to divide the country, but to scale down central Government power to provincial councils to deal with a plethora of localised challenges.
Addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters at a rally in Guruve on this week, VP Chiwenga said the move was in line with Section (2) of the Constitution, under which Central Government should allow provincial councils to come up with local development initiatives.
“When we started speaking about devolution some of you thought that the country will be divided, but the main issue is to scale down responsibilities to councillors. We will remain a unitary state. We are one people despite coming from different cultural and traditional backgrounds.
“Mashonaland Central Province is endowed with vast precious minerals like diamonds, gold and chrome, hence it does not make sense for people to flock to big cities like Harare to look for jobs. Employment should be created after harnessing these mineral resources,” said VP Chiwenga.
He said devolution would help to end politicking and sloganeering.
“If Advocate Martin Dinha becomes the Minister of State, it will be different from the old times of sloganeering, because we will expect him to focus more on development issues,” he said.
However, he said before embarking on all these projects, Government would make sure that people have access to proper health facilities, nutrition and safe water.
His remarks came after the party’s provincial chairman, Cde Kazembe Kazembe, said the major challenge in the area was hunger.
“We will first deal with the issue of health since it is impossible for one to be productive without this requirement. We are going to upgrade Guruve Hospital to a referral status since it is failing to adequately cater for the locals’ health needs, forcing some people to rely on Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital. Therefore, we will bring more doctors and nurses,” said VP Chiwenga.
Erratic rainfall
Several parts of Guruve district are characterised by low and erratic rainfall patterns resulting in most families getting poor harvests.
The area is also saddled with acute water shortages, with some people walking 3-5 kilometres to access clean and safe water.
“We brought a drill to sink more boreholes here. The drill is currently in Mbire and it will soon be here to sink boreholes. We have also installed a centre pivot at Siyalima to improve farming in the area. We also urge you to construct more dams for Command Fishery programmes,” he said.
VP Chiwenga also said Government was now taking over the rehabilitation of national roads, while local authorities and the District Development Fund will concentrate on smaller roads in the communities.
He also addressed a bumper crowd at Dotito Primary School in Mt Darwin where he said Government would distribute bulls and heifers under the Command Livestock programme to improve the cattle herd in Mashonaland Central to enable the country to export quality beef.
Online Reporter