Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
TWO drilling rigs have been lying idle in Tsholotsho when the district is facing water challenges, a development that has been blamed on the ineptitude of some civil servants deployed to the area.
On Friday the Office of the President and Cabinet’s monitoring and evaluation department came face to face with the sad state of affairs in the district after it was informed that two Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) drilling rigs have been stuck at the Zinwa offices in the district due to lack of fuel.
This is despite the fact that Tsholotsho Rural District Council availed 5 000 litres of diesel to the District Development Fund (DDF) which hasn’t been utilised.
The OPC’s monitoring and evaluation department held a meeting with Government and council officials at the council boardroom. The team, led by the permanent secretary Ms Nditwani Nleya, was also left stunned when a supervisor from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Ms Shingai Chizvaure said she had no idea who the contractor for the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho Road was and the number of kilometres they were contracted to do.
“I don’t have the information on the scope of work the contractor was given, it’s at the provincial level. The information wasn’t given to us because they said we were too junior to have that information,” Ms Chizvaure said upon being asked for the information by the permanent secretary.
A bemused Ms Nleya said: “What is your purpose here in Tsholotsho then, some here just think that they came to Tsholotsho just for display, that is a wrong mentality. You must be here to work and contribute to the development of this district.”
On the issue of the idle rigs, Tsholotsho South legislator Cde Musa Ncube said they were disturbed that the rigs were just parked at the Zinwa offices based on the unavailability of fuel when the district’s water challenges were well documented. The rigs are supposed to drill boreholes at Chiefs Mathuphula and Magama homesteads and villages.
Tsholotsho RDC chairman Mr Esau Siwela told the meeting that council provided 5 000 litres of fuel to DDF.
“This is a clear indication that there is no coordination among departments in this district and that leads to key Government programmes stalling. People will then blame the President for Tsholotsho’s underdevelopment when civil servants mandated by the Government to superintend over its programmes are not doing their work. You are not here in Tsholotsho to just sit but you must work for the district, surely the President in Harare cannot know everything yet he is the one that gets the blame when programmes are not being implemented. We are not going to allow that,” said Ms Nleya.
The Government, through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development embarked on a programme to drill 35 000 boreholes in each of the 35 000 villages in the country under the Presidential rural development programme.
The programme will also see a borehole drilled in each of the 9 600 schools in the country.
The provision of water remains a cornerstone towards the attainment of Vision 2030.
Ms Nleya told the meeting that all Government programmes in the district must go through the office of the District Development Coordinator.
Online Reporter