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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
Electrification of more than 10 000 new houses in Victoria Ranch suburb in Masvingo City has started, as the Second Republic continues to walk the talk on its drive to ensure Zimbabwe becomes an upper middle income economy by 2030 in sync with President Mnangagwa’s “Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo” mantra.
Besides electrifying the houses, a range of social services such as running water, schools, recreational facilities and an ultra-modern health centre — Runyararo North West Medical Centre — have been touted as testament to the Second Republic’s commitment to bring development on the door steps of the masses.
Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira, who is also the Zanu PF National Assembly candidate for Masvingo West under which Victoria Ranch falls, said developments effected by Vashandi Housing Cooperative and others showed the Second Republic’s commitment to uplifting lives of the majority.
“The ongoing electrification of over 10 000 houses in Victoria Ranch suburb is a milestone and we want to thank organisations like Vashandi Housing Co-operative for playing a leading role in easing the runaway municipal housing backlog in Masvingo City,” he said.
“We want to assure residents in the suburb that Government will continue to allocate more resources to make sure that the sewer system is speedily completed and also that roads are upgraded. This is in line with President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030.”
Vashandi Housing Co-operative is leading the drive to bring social services to Victoria Ranch residents with the co-operative pulling all the stops to make sure beneficiaries of its housing project-targeting low and middle income earners have electricity and running water in their homes, among other services. Electrification of over 1 300 houses built by Vashandi Housing Co-operative beneficiaries in Victoria Ranch is on the verge of completion, in a milestone development that has been welcomed by the residents.
The co-operative chairperson, Mr Goddard Dunira, yesterday paid tribute to President Mnangagwa’s administration for walking the talk on rolling out social services for urban communities in line with the “leaving no one and no place” behind philosophy.
“We have over 1 300 beneficiaries under the Vashandi Housing Cooperative here in Victoria Ranch and we are on the verge of completing the electrification of all the houses that were built,” he said.
“I can safely say the electrification process is now 75 percent complete, all the materials are now on place including transformers and we want to thank President Mnangagwa because of signature projects like Hwange Units 7 and 8 which means there is expanded power generation capacity to connect more power consumers.”
Treasurer Mr Empraim Gwanongodza said the model Ecosan toilet system being used at Victoria Ranch was attracting attention from other local authorities in Zimbabwe.
“Other urban local authorities around Zimbabwe want to learn from us and we have hosted delegations of officials wanting to look at our Ecosan system which is the best in situations where there is no sewer reticulation, but we are happy that Masvingo City’s trunk-line project is on course and our beneficiaries will soon have sewer connection,” he said.
Mr Gwanongodza said residents were lauding Masvingo City Council for connecting water to all the houses, saying construction of a fledgling secondary school, Makanaka High, which is owned by Simukai Reformed Church, was a harbinger of more social services coming to Victoria Ranch suburb.
“We are happy that investors have come on board to open business centres, services stations and schools while we have also created space for recreational facilities and we are very much satisfied that we are building a modern suburb that has not only attracted civil servants and low income earners but also the elites who are attracted by boundless opportunities in Victoria Ranch,” he said.
He said plans were on course to build Makanaka Primary School in the suburb to ease shortage of primary school places.
It’s sister school — Makanaka High School — was providing secondary school opportunities for pupils from Francis Aphiri, Runyarararo and SDA primary schools in Masvingo City’s western suburbs.
Mr Gwanongodza said the housing project leadership had facilitated the opening of a permanent fully-equipped and electrified police base at Vashandi offices in the suburb, to improve security and safety of residents in Victoria Ranch.
Makanaka High headmaster Mr Munosunama Musarurwa said more students were enrolling.
“We now have an enrolment of 328 students for Forms 1 to 4 and we are expanding the school to grow the student population and offer,” said Mr Musarurwa.
Vashandi Housing Co-operative was founded in 2005 and has been hailed for easing the housing backlog in Masvingo which at one time topped over 30 000 and the co-operative says it hopes Government will allocate it more land to replicate the Victoria Ranch model in other urban settlements and towns in Masvingo.
Online Reporter