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Chronicle Reporter
THE Masvingo provincial administration will focus on developing the province’s largely untapped mining potential and reviving its agriculture sector to enhance food security in the next five years. Interviewed on Wednesday, the Masvingo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Cde Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, said the province was endowed with many minerals and large swathes of arable land he said had not been fully exploited.
He said the expected completion by December of Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam, which will be the country’s biggest inland water body, should dramatically transform agriculture in the generally dry province. He said the bulk of the dam’s 1, 8 billion cubic metres of water would be used to irrigate crops. Apart from providing water to irrigate mainly sugarcane plantations downstream, Cde Bhasikiti said the dam will be a centre for water-based tourism and leisure activities just like Lake Kariba.
“Tokwe-Mukorsi should be completed by December and our people are eagerly waiting for that moment so that by early next year they will have water.
“There are plans to open up 25 000 hectares of land for sugarcane estates that will be drawing irrigation water from the dam. This dam will help us increase the hectarage under sugarcane in the lowveld. We will not irrigate sugarcane only but many other crops as well. We also have plans to provide tourism services at the dam just like what happens at Kariba Dam, which is more or less the same size with Tokwe-Mukorsi,” said Cde Bhasikiti.
He said the province would also invest more on smaller dams, establish new irrigation schemes as well as expand existing ones. Cde Bhasikiti said measures including artificial insemination to speed up the rebuilding of the provincial herd would be intensified in the next five years as recurrent droughts have affected production, particularly in southern districts like Zaka and parts of Chiredzi and Mwenezi.
He said investment in irrigation was a medium to long term development agenda but thousands of people were in urgent need of food aid. To address that, the Government is moving about 600 tonnes of maize to hungry people in parts of the province. The World Food Programme, he said, was also distributing food to the needy.
“As Masvingo province, I must say we are fully utilising our dams. Take the example of Lake Mtirikwi which is almost getting dry because its water is being fully used. We also have Manyuchi Dam in Mwenezi, which is not being fully utilised as the irrigation schemes around it needs to be rehabilitated. There is a mini-hydro power station on Manyuchi River which is supposed to start operating. This power station is supposed to contribute to the national energy supply,” said Cde Bhasikiti.
Contrary to reports that the province had run out of land to resettle the land-hungry, Cde Bhasikiti said the province still had a lot of State land which could be allocated to the people. To that end, scores of villagers who have been displaced by Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam were being resettled in Mazangula area in Mwenezi.
Cde Bhasikiti said people will soon start benefiting from the Masvingo Community Share Ownership Scheme (CSOT).
“The community share ownership trust is another area where we should see more work and benefits for our people,” he said.
He said different companies had made an undertaking to honour their pledges and by the end of this year, the preliminary work to identify projects to be implemented should be completed.
Murowa Diamonds, Lennox Mine, Bikita Minerals and Renco Mine are involved in the Masvingo CSOT. They started depositing money into the trust’s bank account early last month. Work has started in Chivi after Murowa made available $300 000 for community projects a few months ago.
The province has deposits of coal and iron ore in Chiredzi, diamonds in Bikita, Murowa and Mwenezi. Only coal in Chiredzi, gold at Renco, lithium in Bikita and diamonds in Murowa are being exploited. Cde Bhasikiti said in the next five years more exploration would be done to quantify the volumes and evaluate the value and viability of diamonds in Mwenezi and Bikita and the tantalite. He said De Beers was involved in some diamond exploration in Mwenezi but not much information was available regarding their findings.
Commenting on the stand-off between the provincial administration and sugarcane grower and miller, Tongaat Hullett, following the company’s alleged refusal to release 6 000-hectares of sugarcane plantations which were unknown to the Government until recently, Cde Bhasikiti said his office was treating the issue as an urgent matter.
“We still have to liaise with two important ministries, that of lands and indigenisation. In fact there will be meetings with the ministries soon so that we know the facts to enable us to act from an informed position. We want to see the company fully indigenised like what is supposed to happen to the rest of the foreign-owned companies in the country.
Online Reporter