Sadza’s days are numbered

Sydney Kawadza Senior Features Writer
For years, Sadza Business Centre has been one of the most popular centres in Zimbabwe. The centre has been the talk of many who would have passed by or visited the vastly growing centre in Mashonaland East’s Chikomba district.

Sadza, though, mistakenly associated with Buhera or Hwedza districts, is actually the main business centre for Chikomba East constituency. Though its name is Zimbabwe’s staple maize diet, the similarities end there as the business centre faces demise due to dwindling business fortunes.

Chikomba East Business Community chairperson Mr Eria Chimbadzo believes the centre could soon die a natural death.

“What we lack in totality is the necessary financial resources to maintain viable business entities otherwise most shops will soon be closed and the whole centre will be history,” he said.

While the centre had seen rapid growth at the turn of the century, most of the shops at the centre have closed shop. Some of the buildings have become white elephants with broken doors and windows. There is a general fear among residents that some of these unoccupied building could harbour criminal elements.

“There are several shops that have closed over the years and some of their owners have since abandoned them and besides being an eyesore the shops can be used for criminal activities because no one maintains or seems to care of the growing number of abandoned buildings,” Amai Constance Chinoko, a vendor said.

She is one of the several women who sell a variety of second-hand clothes at the centre. Amai Chinoko is also worried about the growing number of unemployed youths who spend their days whiling up their days at the beer places still attracting a few customers at the centre.

“The desperation is evident with the increasing number of prostitutes who patronise the night spots,” she said.

Many unemployed youths are involved in illegal betting at snooker and mini-soccer tables.

“Villagers have one single challenge which is liquidity. They do not have the cash even to buy from the shops hence their imminent collapse. Most the villagers are subsistence farmers and their only source of income, the Grain Marketing Board, has not helped the situation either, as farmers do not receive their payments for delivering grain in time.

“Some farmers are forced into barter-trade because whenever they do not receive their payments from the GMB they are forced to get some inputs ahead of the agricultural season from the parastatal so they would never benefit in cash after delivering their grain,” he said.

Villagers travel either to Marondera or Harare for banking services buying goods there.

“Most of these challenges are associated with the illegal sanctions regime and the dollarisation of the economy. ”

He said the Chikomba Rural District Council is partly responsible for the demise of Sadza Business Centre.

“We have council offices that have been abandoned as officials have opted to concentrate on Chivhu centre despite that Sadza hosts the biggest hospital in the district. The community is divided because the local authorities are concentrating their efforts on developing Chivhu and all resources generated from council fees, rates and tariffs are not evenly distributed in the district,” he said.

Mr Chimbadzo, however, urged villagers to diversify their farming activities and go into poultry, piggery and tobacco production. He urged Government to take seriously concerns raised by district’s legislators. Chikomba East MP Edgar Mbwembwe concurs saying Government is not prioritising efforts to grow the economy and people in rural areas who bear the brunt of an economy in distress.

“Of concern is the laid back approach by our Government on the urgent need to resuscitate and grow our economy. Government should look back at the economic revival of the country.

“This should be fast-tracked and should be the priority so that we will never hear Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa complaining of shortages of financial resources.”

He added: “The increased number of unemployed youths on the roads indicates that we do not have an industry to employ them. There is not much emphasis being put in terms of practical measures to revive the economy.

“The closed and closing industries show implications that are negative to the development of the country. The country is in an emergence situation and there is need to resuscitate the industries, create jobs and reduce the pressure on the rural communities. Growing the economy and rebuilding our industrial base is the only solution to the deficit in terms of revenue being experienced in Zimbabwe.”

Chikomba East has seven wards which are predominantly rural.

“We are rural constituency villagers survive on subsistence farming on their small pieces of land. The area is generally dry with poor soils hence some of the years we rely on food assistance from central Government,” he said in an interview.

MP Mbwembwe said the lack of business activities has contributed to the death of such business centres as Sadza, Mupatsi, Warikandwa, Pokoteke, Mavare and Matove among others.

“The communities cannot support the businesses in these centres as the businesspeople are failing to stock up their shops. The businesses are supposed to be thriving especially at Sadza, which is our main centre with arguably the biggest hospital in Chikomba district and other Government departments there.”

He said there was need to develop the business sector in the constituency to reflect the growth of these centres.

“There is a lot of construction work as people, even from as far as Harare, are buying residential stands and building big houses at Sadza Business Centre but that growth is not reflected on the business side of the constituency,” he said.

MP Mbwembwe said there was need for micro-finance and banking institutions to assess the situation and come up with loan facilities that could resuscitate the businesses in his constituency. He expressed hope that the final stretch of the road linking Hwedza Centre and Sadza would be completed before the end of the year.

“I am glad the financial resources are trickling in and we have been assured of support from Presidential Affairs Minister for Mashonaland East Simbaneuta Mudarikwa that the road is a priority project as accessibility into the constituency is critical for growth and development.”

He said there was also a deliberate effort in the constituency to focus on agriculture, poultry, piggery and horticulture as a main focus for food sustenance and development.

“We are distributing horticultural seeds in every village. We have held meetings. We are aiming at making sure that each ward focuses on a particular crop suitable to their needs so that we can arrange markets for the produce in the constituency and even Marondera and Harare.”

MP Mbwembwe also pointed out the need to utilise the dam at Sadza Business Centre.

“We have a large dam which can be used for irrigation purposes. We are looking at about 30 farmers who can start up irrigation systems at the other end of the dam while fishing is also a viable alternative,” he said.

The legislator, however, lamented the poor state of the roads in the constituency.

“This problem dates back even when our former MP Cde Callisto Jokonya was still alive and even President Mugabe can testify to the way the former information minister always reminded him of the poor roads. The whole district shares only one grader for all its roads. We have to mobilise our own resources such as fuel to maintain the roads but that is not enough,” he said.

He is the poor state of the schools in the constituency.

“We are not only talking of school furniture but there are some schools without doors and windows. I have had to deal with situations where schools have been closed for being inhabitable. There is also a serious need to rehabilitate or sinking of boreholes in the constituency. Four schools face closure for not having adequate water sources so there is need to work hard on constructing deep wells as a temporary measure while mobilising resources for boreholes,” he said.

According to the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Chikomba East is semi-arid and incidences of poverty are recorded at 65 percent of the total population.

Parliament recommends that more activities be directed towards poverty alleviation so as to improve the well-being of the citizens.

“There should be more business centres in Chikomba to alleviate poverty. There should be more secondary schools in the constituency. There is great need for more NGOs specifically for Chikomba East,” the Parliament of Zimbabwe notes.

 

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