Chronicle Editor
Fairness Moyana recently in Dete
VILLAGERS in Cross Dete are up in arms with the Hwange Rural District Council (HRDC) over a piece of land that was allocated towards the construction of a filling station ahead of a proposed clinic.
Temperatures are at tipping point in the area with villagers accusing council of not taking basic service delivery to the community seriously.
Villagers who spoke to Sunday News expressed disappointment over the development saying in previous engagements with the councillor, it was agreed that a clinic would be developed. The community went on to look for a donor to assist in its construction only to learn later that council had given the land to a businessman to construct a filling station.
“The issue of the filling station is being opposed by villagers. What we want is a clinic that assists everyone.
“We can’t have many filling stations ahead of critical primary healthcare centres. When a person falls sick or gets involved in an accident you don’t send them to a filling station but a clinic.
“We have children who sometimes fall sick and we fail to get money to ferry them to the nearest clinic which affects them and can result in complications or death,” said Mrs Nothando Ngwenya.
Villagers said they walk long distances to seek medical help with health facilities in Dete such as Lupote, Songwa and Makwandara ranging between seven and 17km away from them.
Another villager, Ms Grace Nyoni said the provision of a health facility was going to ease the burden especially for women.
“The distance we travel as women is too long. Imagine when your child falls sick at night, you get stranded. This is why we are advocating for a clinic.
“We have women giving birth at home because of failure to access healthcare services due to the distance one has to walk. The reason we want a clinic here at Cross Dete is primarily because of the difficulties people face especially the elderly women and children,” said Mrs Nyoni.
The villagers said they had meetings with their ward councillor and agreed that he proposes the idea of a clinic to council.
“We told the councillor that we wanted a clinic to be constructed here and we had secured a sponsor through the Roman Catholic Church. A meeting was called to discuss further the issue of securing the place for the clinic and the people who attended including the councillor, village heads and the headman unanimously agreed to have a letter formally written to council highlighting the proposal,” said another villager, Mr Welly Nyoni.
He said they later learnt through the council engineer, Alick Mudenda that the place had been given to someone who wanted to build a filling station.
“It was shocking that the councillor of the ward was not even aware of the proposed filling station and the same goes for the traditional leaders. We are therefore demanding answers as to how a project like that can be implemented without consulting the affected community,” he said.
Headman Dumisani Mpala described the development as a misplaced priority.
“This is not a small matter I’m still surprised as to why build a filling station ahead of social amenities? We are surprised as to how council issued out the land that we believed was earmarked for a clinic because of its centrality. And besides, a person’s health is more important and should be prioritised,” he said.
Councillor for the area, Clr Eugene Dube said the matter of constructing a clinic was shot down on the basis that Cross Dete had a number of clinics dotted around.
HRDC chief executive officer, Mr Phindile Ncube professed ignorance over the proposal by the community but said the local authority was ready to construct a clinic if there was a need for one in the area.
“I’m not aware of this issue but the responsibility of planning rests with council. What the communities can do through their representative is to indicate the type of service that they require. If it’s a clinic, council will proceed to plan a clinic accordingly taking into account various factors. We are aware of the need for a clinic and we will provide one in that area without necessarily pointing to a particular spot,” said Mr Ncube.
He, however, could not be drawn to confirm or deny whether the said area had been allocated to someone.
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