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Before the harmonised elections of 2008, the constituencies were one huge Hwange East. Now, the MP for Hwange East is Mr Tose Wesley Sansole while Hwange West MP is Mr Gift Mabhena both of MDC-T.
Hwange East is made up of Mbizha, Jambezi Ward 7, Sidinda Ward 8 to 18 and also encompass Dete up to Kamativi.
On the other hand, Hwange West is made up of 11 urban wards all coming from the resort town of Victoria Falls and five rural wards namely, Matetsi, Chidobe, Kachechete, Mananga and Chikandakubi.
Chronicle visited the two constituencies recently and witnessed that while they are endowed with many natural resources, the electorate has nothing to show for it, save for bragging rights that the mighty Victoria Falls is in their area, Hwange East.
Some of the constituents in both constituencies have not been able to see the natural wonder. Furthermore, many schools lack basic furniture like desks and benches while timber logging companies are making money manufacturing expensive hard-wood furniture.
Chronicle interviewed villagers from Dete to Jambezi and Victoria Falls in Hwange East to get their views on their legislator. The people are “fed up” and they wish that President Mugabe would call for harmonised elections this year so that choose another MP.
Much of the constituency is facing transport problems as there are no buses to ferry people to and from Hwange or Victoria Falls, their main business centres.
Regarding education, some schools have no furniture yet the constituency has abundant timber that is being exploited by furniture manufacturing companies.
Health issues are also of major concern with many people dying of malaria every year. Shortage of water and poor sanitation are also major problems in the constituency as most of the boreholes that were drilled when the constituency was still held by Zanu-PF, have since broken down. As a result people and livestock are facing water shortage. Constituents say that their representative must take a leading role in rehabilitating the water points for the benefit of livestock and the surrounding communities.
The most topical issue is education in a constituency where zero percent pass rate at Grade Seven and Form Four examinations is very common.
At the same time the two legislatures have even failed to put in place parliamentary constituency information centres (PCICs) so that they could interact with their electors at one central place.
PCICs were set up between 2000 and 2005 as part of efforts by Parliament to reform its operations and conduct its business more effectively and transparently but up to date the two constituencies do not have them.
The PCICs were meant to be centrally located so that they could be easily accessed by the majority of people and Hwange West and Hwange East like other constituencies countrywide.
As a result, there is a void that exists in both constituencies between the electorate and their leaders.
There are some villagers who do not know their MP. Villagers in Hwange West said Mr Sansole was “not visible” while in Hwange East, they said Mr Mabhena was like a “tortoise that is always hiding in its shell.”
Some say they last saw their MP some four years ago during the election campaign period.
But identification is not enough in constituencies that have recurrent droughts; that have dangerous problem animals like lions and elephants, and have not benefited from Campfire despite the abundance of game.
While Mr Sansole said he is more visible as compared to any on the other MDC-T MP in this region and went further to blame the police for refusing him permission to meet his electorate, his counterpart, Mr Mabhena could not comment when contacted for comment on Thursday. He said he was attending a Parliament session and promised to call back after 30 minutes. He did not call thereafter, and Chronicle tried in vain to reach him.
Back to the electorate in both constituencies, some indicated that they were not going to vote for these two men again.
Generally, the electorate is up in arms against their representative whom they accuse of not being available for the people who elected them into office.
Both MPs received funds from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). Mr Sansole said he had managed to spearhead a number of projects in the constituency using the CDF that was allocated in the 2009/10 fiscal budget.
“There is a clinic in Mbizha Ward called Milonga which we managed to electrify. We also provided a 5 000-litre water tank for the clinic. This clinic was built about 10 years ago but it could not be opened because there was no electricity and water. The only thing that is left now is a water pump and the clinic can be opened,” he said.
Mr Sansole said they had also managed to buy classroom furniture for Dingani Primary School in Silewu using the CDF.
For Mr Mabhena, residents of Victoria Falls and villagers in the three rural wards accuse him of failing to develop their respective areas.
In Matetsi, villagers said Mr Mabhena hired scotch carts from fellow villagers and paid some of them to put gravel on part of Jambezi Road.
“The last time he was here, we heard that he had been given the CDF. So he hired some villagers mostly his relatives who also supplied donkey or ox drawn scotch carts which they used to carry soil to fix part of the road. It was all in vain because when the rains came, the soil was eroded and the road is worse off,” said Mr Mark Ncube of Matetsi.
According to Mr Roland Sibanda, vice-chairperson of Victoria Falls Combined Residents’ Association, Mr Mabhena is in “self-imposed” exile when it comes to meeting his constituents.
“So far, I have not seen much of development coming from Mr Mabhena. He is a laid-back person, someone who does not want to interact with the people, someone who doesn’t even give us respect but at least he attends meetings if we invite him. He waits to be invited by us and does not take the initiative and it is very difficult to get hold of him,” said Mr Sibanda.
On CDF, he said he witnessed Mr Mabhena donating some doors to about five schools including Ndlovu, Chamabondo and Chinotimba.
“We asked him if he could donate towards science lab at Mosi-Oya-Tunya Secondary School but he failed to do so and the next thing was that he donated money towards the setting up of fowl runs for some elderly women in the community and rumours are that he donated those things to the youths and women from his MDC-T party,” he said.
While some of his constituents had no kind words for him, others credited Mr Mabhena for working very hard resulting in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare seconding a second doctor to Victoria Falls District Hospital.
With all the abundant natural resources in both constituencies, one wonders why the larger population is living in abject poverty. There are also tour and adventure companies using roads in Chidobe up to Chisuma to access the mighty Zambezi River for rafting with their well-to-do clients. Unfortunately, villagers get virtually nothing while the levies — a dollar per client — go to the rural district council.
“We used to get funeral assistance and other benefits from these tour companies that use our resources but since the rural district council started collecting the levy they stopped and we have tried to engage our representative in Parliament to no avail,” said one villager in Hwange rural.
Online Reporter