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Vincent Gono, Features Editor
MOST urban constituencies have been getting a raw deal when it comes to representation in national development matters as those issues are often relegated to local authorities.
And while their rural counterparts are known to make a lot of noise in that regard, the same cannot be said for urban ones especially metropolitan ones where some do not even care to know their National Assembly members.
In Bulawayo like in so many other cities and towns the tussle to represent people has been left to the ruling Zanu-PF and MDC parties and it is no longer a secret that the former has been finding it difficult to win.
In fact those that did not want to sweat it out with Zanu-PF would go for the cheap ones and stand as opposition candidates in urban constituencies.
The tradition where people vote for certain parties with absolutely no regard to the particular individual’s capabilities has more often than not produced no intended results at all.
People have been voting political laggards who come clothed in the “glorified” name of the party and later blame themselves after they realise that they would have been sold a dummy.
This has been the case with most urban constituencies particularly in Bulawayo where MDC-T for lack of better candidates have been giving people representatives who often go on voicemail in Parliament.
Courtesy of the 2015 dynamics on the political front where a number of MDC-T MPs were expelled after defecting from MDC-T to join a breakaway faction — the then MDC Renewal Team led by Tendai Biti, six out of the 12 seats in Bulawayo were won by Zanu-PF after the opposition boycotted elections.
One of the six constituencies is Pumula that was won by Cde Godfrey Malaba who had long shown signs of resilience in the face of consecutive defeats.
People in his constituency expressed gratitude to Zanu-PF for allowing Cde Malaba to be their representative saying he was a humble person who deserves to be given a full term to see through his projects.
“We never knew MPs to be so grounded in the communities they serve. Cde Malaba has taught us that. He is too humble and we wonder why people were not voting for him. He attends and assists at funerals and would queue for food just like anyone else. We will be talking to him while the queue moves and that I think is one high level of humility that we had not seen in previous MPs.
“He just loves Pumula and given another chance he will do more especially that there is no more political malignment that characterised the previous dispensation and delayed progress as MPs were fighting for political survival,” said Mr Nqobizitha Ncube of Old Pumula.
Having lost to the MDC-T enough times to make him sulk, he remained patient even remaining in the background as a shadow MP to the MDC-T’s and giving as much help as possible where and whenever needed without being bitter over the loss.
His constituency is one of the few expansive urban constituencies that stretch even into the peri-urban and proper rural communities of Methodist, St Peter’s and Robert Sinyoka on the outskirts of the city.
And what it means is that the expectations of these two contrasting communities should be met without making one feel deprived.
The rural part of the constituency expect their concerns to be voiced in Parliament so that they get good roads, clean water, dip tanks, education and health infrastructure as well as other social services to the marginalised and the elderly. On the other hand the urban voters look forward to provision of social amenities and economic development spurred by employment opportunities from a functional industry.
The constituency apart from the sprawling Pumula suburbs also includes new ones such as Habbek, Emthunzini and Pelandaba West suburbs where the issues of electricity, roads and water connection has been priority on the MP’s to do list.
But having been born and bred in Pumula, Cde Malaba who is no more stranger to politics as he has been in the party’s Central Committee for almost two decades now said he was equal to the task.
He said he was aware of the challenges that people were facing and was trying to measure up to their expectations.
He said he was happy with the new political dispensation and hoped to see a change of fortunes in the way things were done politically as well as the thrust of economic revival that he said had raised the people’s hopes of a better life.
“I have a constituency that has a mixture of everything and it makes my work not easy especially as I took over a seat that had not known development for a good number of years.
“The constituency is unique in that its other part is rural, the other is peri-urban and the other is rural. These communities have different expectations that I should meet. You go to Methodist, St Peter’s and Robert Sinyoka they want an improved transport infrastructure, they want clean water and they want more schools and clinics as well as dip tanks for their cattle.
“You go to Habbek, Emthunzini and Pelandaba West they want electricity and water connections. In Pumula Old, the houses are now old and most of them are caving in while the occupants are either retired or pensioners whose savings were eaten away by dollarisation and have no source of income to repair them. These therefore need social welfare services while the youths want employment.
“I have been voicing all these concerns and I am happy we now have a responsive Government that is working hard to improve the lives of the people in the country,” said Cde Malaba.
He said part of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was targeted at those particular issues while a number of schools in all the three wards that were covered by his constituency have already benefited.
He said he was working very well with MDC-T councillors who were part of the CDF committees.
“I believe the pace that I was travelling with is good. I have managed in two years to do what could not be done in 15 years,” he said adding that he is working on transforming youth centres such as Isilwane in Pumula Old so that they are used as vocational training and multi-purpose sporting centres.
He said there is need for continued work on removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks in Government so that development is easily accessible.
derick.khumalo