Online Reporter
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
SOMETHING is gravely wrong in the Garahwa community of Chipinge District!
For more than a month, residents have been cut off from the rest of the country after bus services along the route to Chisumbanje were suspended due to the deplorable state of the road.
What was once a vital lifeline has now become impassable.
Electricity has also been absent for close to a year. Even shopping centres scattered across the remote area remain in darkness, reportedly because of an overloaded breaker that failed and has yet to be repaired.
The crisis has disrupted essential services.
School teachers and other public servants were unable to report for duty for over two weeks, leaving classrooms and offices deserted.
In cases of serious illness, the situation has turned dire.
With no reliable transport, tractors have become makeshift ambulances — the only vehicles capable of navigating the treacherous terrain marked not just by potholes, but by deep contours that make the road virtually untrafficable.
This is the everyday life that people staying in Matikwa, Munepasi, Chinyamukwakwa, Garahwa, Mabeye, Chisuma, Makoho villages mainly under Chief Garahwa, and partly areas under Chief Mpungu are grappling with.
This is the everyday life that people living in Matikwa, Munepasi, Chinyamukwakwa, Garahwa, Mabeye, Chisuma, Makoho villages mainly under Chief Garahwa, and partly areas under Chief Mpungu are grappling with on a daily basis.
While roads countrywide have been badly affected due to the heavy rains received recently, the state of the road that connects Chisumbanje and these communities are just bad.
The Chisumbanje-Garahwa road has been a perennial problem, but the challenge was occasionally eased when former ZANU PF Member of the House of Assembly, Cde Enock Porusingazi, was still in office.
The businessman-cum-politician used to make road repairs on the same route using his own personal resources.
In their deep Ndau accent, locals spoke of painful experiences of not being able to connect with the rest of the world for lengthy periods.
Mr Tingadini Makhuyana, a 52-year old retired teacher who came back home to stay in Garahwa after years of service in Chipinge town said: “It is sad that this is what we have to go through and getting accustomed to it as normal. We spent months without travelling outside this area because of the bad state of the road. Buses no longer come this side.
“In fact, we saw a bus on Sunday after a month, simply because the busses cannot navigate this badly damaged road. We are humbly appealing to authorities to spare a thought for us.”
Ms Machimwase Mugaranehasha from Chisuma area, said: “We feel like we have been forgotten. Surely how can we go for more than a year without electricity because of a simple overloaded breaker? We do not have a single bus plying our route because of the state of the road. How do we transport our sick relatives? How do we connect with our relatives elsewhere? How do we do business with the outside world?”
Chief Garahwa said: “We really appreciate the establishment of the radio station in this area. It helps us a lot in communicating issues that affect us as a community, such as lost cattle, imminent disaster and many other possible challenges.
“However, it is sad that we have been living with this very bad state of the road for a long time now. We actually did not have a bus, but one came on Sunday, more than a month without public transport. You saw for yourselves the state of the road. If it starts raining now, you are assured you will return to where you came from using a helicopter; otherwise, we will be together for not less than a month. Yes, electricity has been a challenge, and we are told that it is all because of a breaker that was overloaded. It has been close to a year, if not more. People around these communities are now used to solar power, for those who can afford, but at the end of the day, those who can afford are very few.” Chipinge District Development Coordinator (DDC), Mr William Mashava, said: “It is unfortunate that the issue of electricity has not reached my office. While it is under Chiredzi District in terms of electricity provision, we could have assisted in alerting relevant authorities. On the issue of the road, yes, it is in a very, very bad state.
“It is under the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), formerly District Development Fund. We will convey the same message, with the hope that something can be urgently done.”
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Robert Chawatama, the head of Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) Manicaland, were fruitless as his mobile was unreachable.
