Poor roads, food shortages dog Beitbridge East

The costly, virtual endurance sees her sitting at the back of a truck laden with goods or if she is lucky, on one of the few smoky kombis that still ply the rough road.
By comparison, a more comfortable ride on a bus from Gweru to Bulawayo, basically the same distance, costs just $5 (R37).
Mrs Ncube needs to regularly travel to the border town to shop and also because it is the administrative centre for Beitbridge district. It is a journey she simply cannot afford yet the alternative is just as challenging.
“We last had a reliable bus service in 1998,” she said.
“No one chased the bus company away but the condition of the road did. The decision has isolated us but I appreciate it because the road is not a road anymore. We need to go there to acquire birth certificates and other paper work, but not many of us can budget R300 just for transport. So we risk our lives and freedom by illegally crossing the river (Limpopo) to buy grocery at Bendamutare in South Africa. It is unsafe because the river these days has a lot of water. Also there are permanent risks associated with crocodiles and robberies and abuse by omagumaguma. As for documents, we go without them.”
Chikwalakwala is in Beitbridge East constituency, which runs from Beitbridge town on the side of the river in a radius of about 50km eastwards.
Cde Kembo Mohadi is the MP.
Constituents in many parts of the constituency complain of poor roads, lack of reliable transport, food and other services. They are also unhappy with poor access to clean and safe water as well as conflict with animals.
It is apparently a source of pride for one to own a bicycle, donkeys and a cart. One recent morning, at Dite, a rural service centre, dozens of bicycles and up to 10 donkey-drawn carts were “parked” on the roadside as their owners went about their business.
Mr Roy Ndou (34) said:
“Lack of transport is our biggest challenge, so this is the only viable alternative. The problem is that you cannot travel on a cart from here to Beitbridge.”
Like others in the large constituency, the Chikwalakwala-Beitbridge Road is virtually impassable. Motorists now use roads which they created on the side of the official road. But when it rains they are cut off.
Beitbridge is situated in agro-ecological region five. It is one of the country’s driest areas yet good for game and cattle ranching and small stock rearing. Baobab, mopane and thorn bushes dominate the flat landscape. In between are patches of land under moisture-stressed maize.
Mr Ndou, of Mahuhushe Village said another year of drought and resulting food shortages was looming. He appealed to the MP to mobilise food aid as a short-term effort to alleviate suffering and as a longer-term strategy to fight hunger, govenment should set up irrigation schemes.
“It is dry all over,” he said. “Do you think our cattle will have enough pasture until October? It is not encouraging. We appeal for food because it is another failed season. But an irrigation project will be best going forward.”
Logistical problems to travel to the district registrar’s office in the border town mean that one can grow into adulthood without an ID. Twenty one year-old Eunice, from Chikwalakwala obtained hers early last month at Chitulipasi after a mobile registration team visited the area.
“I was not a person before then. I was not in the national records, so officially, there was no Eunice. If our MP organises more of these mobile teams, I think it will help. He is the Minister of Home Affairs and is our MP so; perhaps he used his office to have the mobile registration team here. We appreciate that because many of my friends don’t have IDs. They now envy me and I taunt them,” said Eunice.
She refused to have a picture of her taken, embarrassed that her soldier boyfriend in Gweru could see her in the news and feel uncomfortable.
“He does not know that I didn’t have an ID,” she laughed.
“No woman will tell her boyfriend that she doesn’t have an ID. He could ditch me in embarrassment.”
Three days before the Chronicle news crew visited her area, Mrs Ncube, a mother of eight and grandmother to 14 had jumped the border into South Africa to buy food. She and seven colleagues waded across the Limpopo’s chest-level water in what has become a routine trip for them.
Teachers at their local school, Chikwalakwala fetch water from a shallow well after their borehole broke down and has not been repaired.
“I want to see the MP so that I can tell him that rural people are suffering. We are suffering. Our grandchildren do not know cars, they do not have IDs, and there are no roads. It pains me to risk my life to be able to buy food in a country where I do not vote.”
Ward One councillor, Enock Ndou, said there is some development taking place in his area, but acknowledged that it is too slow and patchy to meet constituents’ expectations.
The knowledgeable councillor said he has worked with his electors to draft a five-year ward strategic plan which they reviewed in December last year. The plan, he said, notes that more work and investment is needed to develop the area. It also identifies progress made in key priority sectors. Despite the challenges, he thanked Cde Mohadi’s continued support in boosting development.
“The general thrust is to develop irrigation schemes, water and sanitation projects,” he said.
“Phase One of Chikwalakwala Irrigation Scheme is doing well but only half of it is working, so we need more assistance in getting the other half working. We have a secondary school at Chitulipasi which we want to be developed into a boarding school because we have children at the school who come from as far as Chikwalakwala. They ask for accommodation at homes around the school as they cannot walk daily from their homes to attend school. It is unfortunate that some of them end up being abused or distracted from their studies.”
He said a proposed border post at Chikwalakwala is yet to be built. South Africa has already constructed a road leading to the planned post but Zimbabwe hasn’t, he said.
Human-animal conflict is taking a tool on people, their livestock and crops. Sections of his ward lie in the game corridor of Kruger National Park in South Africa and Sengwe hunting concessions in Zimbabwe. Other safari hunting zones are actually in his ward. He said elephants have imposed curfews in some places.
“Elephants are wreaking havoc at Chamatemo Irrigation Scheme. They broke down the fence and continue to destroy people’s crops. A very violent elephant is causing problems at Malape Primary School. Children cannot travel to school early lest they are attacked. They also have to dismiss early before it gets dark. I think our problem animal control strategy is poor,” said Clr Ndou.
Clr Ndou praised the community around Longobwe Primary School for pooling their resources together to build the facility. He said Cesvi; an NGO was also building a classroom block at Malape.
Head of Chatapita Village, Mr July Mbedzi said people in his area have confidence in Cde Mohadi; the biggest reason why they have consistently voted for him.
He however appealed to Cde Mohadi to put pressure on local safari operators to not only strengthen their problem animal control programmes but also invest more in communities whose resources they exploit.
“Our only hope lies in the irrigation schemes because of the dryness of the area, but even they fall victim to elephant raids. That leaves us with nowhere to turn to regarding food supply. I don’t want to live on donated food. I want to grow my own food for my family,” he said at Chitulipasi Rural Business Centre where he had gone to buy a torch and battery for use in his nightly work of guarding his crops.