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feature is Dulibadzimu Gorge, a 15-minute drive west of the Beitbridge border town, some 588km south of Harare.
However, very few people seem to care about the significance of this magnificent feature and its relationship with Beitbridge town and the Vha Venda tribe.
Dulibadzimu suburb, Dulibadzimu Clinic and Dulibadzimu Stadium are some of the common names around Beitbridge.
When one talks about Beitbridge, the statement will be incomplete without mentioning the name Dulibadzimu.
Historically, the place serves as an aide-memoire for those with existing knowledge of the Venda culture.
The aura of mystique enhances the cultural value attached to this natural feature. Legend has it that the gods and ancestral spirits of the tribe used to dwell there.
The Limpopo River seethes and froths in the rainy season and shrivels to a shadow of itself in the dry season and so has been life in Beitbridge to which the river is an inspiring vein of life.
Since time immemorial life has mainly been a pendulum swinging from one end to another, but proffering no significant improvement, when one seriously looks at people-centred service delivery and developments.
In short, this has been a tale of many intentions if not talk shows without action.
Improving people’s quality of life and expanding opportunities to determine their destiny, higher incomes, better education, health care, protected environment, gender equality, freedom and security is every government’s top priority.
This has been the case with the Government of Zimbabwe, which soon after independence undertook to develop all areas that were previously viewed as remote by the then colonial regime.
It is in this spirit that in July 2006 the Government, through the National Economic Development Priority Programme then co-ordinated by Vice President Joice Mujuru, sought to give Beitbridge town a new look.
This massive civil works programme sought to come up with a facelift to the once neglected growth point into a medium city.
A handful of people would remember that when Beitbridge Growth Point was granted town status most were quick to dismiss it as an underdeveloped rural settlement.
It is against this background that President Mugabe officially launched the Beitbridge Redevelopment Exercise saying Government wanted to turn it into a fully-fledged modern medium city.
The ministries of Local Government and Urban Development and that of Public Works were tasked by Cabinet to oversee the implementation of the project.
The programme has a provision for the construction of institutional facilities, namely a hospital, primary school, secondary school, civic centre, Government composite office block, district Registrar-General’s offices, modern truck-inn, shopping complex, a three-star hotel (funded by National Social Security Authority), an aerodrome and the upgrading of the current border post to meet world-class standards.
Furthermore, there is also the construction of 16 blocks of flats to house 64 families, mainly middle class civil servants; 250 core houses that would be for home ownership; 52 F14 houses for civil servants; road dualisation, upgrading water supply and sewer infrastructure in the town.
This ambitious project has raised hope among Beitbridge residents and other people across the country and the continent.
Two-thirds of these projects are nearing completion, while others have been completed and some are at various stages of construction.
Public Works Minister Mr Joel Gabuza said Government needed at least US$1,2 million to complete the outstanding civil works.
He added that a work programme was underway to see through the completion of the project.
NSSA spokesperson Mr Philemon Chereni pointed out that the construction of the US$22 million hotel in Beitbridge was right on schedule and nearing completion.
NSSA is sponsoring the construction of the 140-bed hotel which will be operated by the Rainbow Tourism Group upon completion.
“The proposed development involves the construction of a double-storey hotel, main administration building, three blocks of hotel rooms accommodating a total of 140 hotel rooms including maintenance workshop, guardhouse and boundary wall.
“Most of the civil works including the road network, drainage, water and sewerage and the erection of the main hotel building are already underway,” he said.
The hotel is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year.
Beitbridge town secretary Dr Sipho Singo said the local authority had made great strides since 2008 in terms of infrastructure development and service delivery.
He said they had managed to move truck ports out of the CBD where haulage trucks had become a menace.
“The local authority was incapacitated in terms of implementing some of its capital
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Online Reporter