adminCain Mathema
THIS is the final part of a paper on development in Matabeleland by Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Governor Cain Mathema
7. Electricity. As I said in earlier paragraphs, there was no Zesa electricity in Tsholotsho before independence, only diesel engine-generated electricity was available for the white officers and the Tsholotsho Hospital. Zesa services only came to Tsholotsho in 1991 after President Mugabe had directed that they be made available in the district.
When I became Tsholotsho MP from 1995 to 2000, we pushed for more Zesa services. Indeed, we were given these services at Sipepa for the villagers, the schools, the hospital, businesses and the homes at the Sipepa Business Centre. We pushed again for these services to go beyond Sipepa. As a result Zesa lines moved from Sipepa to Thonisani, Silambaphoba, Mcetshwa, Dzontsi, Tshino, Sawudweni and Mathuphula.
We pushed again for Zesa services for other places. The result was that Nkunzi, Bhubhude, Mbamba, Dinyane, Mvundlana, Jahe and Nhlangano were electrified. Then came Mbuthe village (I personally paid for this scheme using my money which was part of my salary as the country’s Ambassador to Zambia from 2001 to 2004), Matshudula, Mhlabangubo, Manqe, Chief Gampu’s village, Mbalibali, Mathe, Tshefunye, Dikili, and Mazibisa up to Zibungululi. Now Madona, Dombo, Mapulubusi, Nembe and Mkhubazi have Zesa services, anybody or any institution that wants Zesa power will be provided with electricity.The Rural Electricfication Agency people have done us proud on these schemes, I have been working with them together with Zesa. Manzimahle, Tshaka, Lupinde and Magama too now have Zesa services. REA have also agreed to assist in the electrification of Godzo Centre and Village.
Conclusion.
As I said right from the start, all I am trying to do is to show that it is only a myth to say President Robert Mugabe, his Party Zanu-PF and the government have done less for Matabeleland compared to Mashonaland. I selected Tsholotsho to give a few examples to show that Matabeleland has not been neglected. We in Tsholotsho are happy with what the government and the President have done for us. Of course, we want more in all the spheres of social and economic life, and we will keep on asking for some more. For instance, each farmer in Tsholotsho wants to be granted a mining claim for his/her farm. So far we have not been let down; only the illegal Western and MDC sanctions have made it more difficult for the government to assist. But this is happening in all the provinces and districts in Zimbabwe.
The creation of the MDC has just cost us a lot, and it will take a long time for us to recover from the effects of the birth and activities of this Western creation, a creation that has called for the sanctions that have greatly reduced the speed of development in Tsholotsho. Had the MDC not been created, Tsholotsho development would be very far indeed by now. Just look at the projects mentioned in this paper alone, many and many more were not mentioned, including the seed and fertiliser that the President and the government have given to the people of Tsholotsho as well as the moneys that government has poured into the construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, the pipeline to Bulawayo will leave a lot of water in Tsholotsho too.
Had all the water schemes mentioned in this discourse been accomplished, we would be having piped and metred water at every homestead in Tsholotsho by now, electricity lines would have covered the whole of Tsholotsho, huge dams for irrigation, tourism, businesses and household water would have been completed a long time ago, all our major roads would have been tarred. But Tsholotsho people have not lost hope, they cannot lose hope as they are a stubborn lot, siyiTsholotsho yeziqholo after all. That is why the district has so many new business centres all over, centres that never used to be there before independence like Moyeni, Malindi, Nembe, Dinyane and Mhlabangubo business centres, that is why Tsholotsho Town alone now boasts of more than a hundred shops, butcheries, factories and workshops.
At independence there were only seventeen businesses in Tsholotsho, (before independence there were no factories in Tsholotsho, now Tsholotsho even produced 60 of the RBZ scotch carts for the people!). The people are just stubborn, forward-looking and resilient, that is why some of the well known armed struggle battles were fought in Tsholotsho; and that is why right in the bush, without Zesa power even, you find some of the most beautiful and expensive suburban houses in Tsholotsho (but with no title deeds of course because on that score we are still following the African reserve culture like everywhere); that is why what is now Efusini Township (which used to be an agricultural research farm in Rhodesia), has been turned into one of the most beautiful high density suburbs in Zimbabwe, the citizens are building their own houses, some of them double storey houses, they build with no assistance from any of the building societies and banks; that is why Tsholotsho boasts of some of the latest models of cars; and that is why our farmers produce some of the best crops (many times seed and fertiliser donated by the President himself) and beef cattle in the country, and some of the cattle donated by the President and his government, and using the RBZ-provided farming machinery and equipment.
More than 90% of these personal and family developments have not come from bank loans nor building societiees, but from wages and salaries and businesses and farming operations. Banks do not normally want to offer loans to people in the communal lands , they therefore, essentially do not want to offer loans to black people, banks use instructions given to them by Cecil John Rhodes and the British ruling class.
Let us not forget that the banking sector in Zimbabwe is dominated by the three British banks, that is, Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered and Stanbic, once these three sneeze, the whole country gets a cough epidemic. Our banking sector needs a complete paradigm shift, a complete change so that it becomes more democratic in ownership and in offering loans to the majority. Even old Mutual and CABS, they have nothing to do with Tsholotsho because they two are British companies that are here to serve the interests of whites and other multinational corporations. No single shop or house in Tsholotsho has been built through a mortgage facility from Barclays, Standard Chartered , Stanbic Old Mutual and CABS — and this is 31 years after independence! As a country, we need to drastically review the issue of collateral and security when it comes to bank loans, the requirements are just too primitive, too restrictive, too discriminatory against blacks — this we cannot afford, neither can we tolerate forever, we are now in Zimbabwe for goodness sake.
Foreign banks and other financial institutions have to be seen to be playing their part in creating conditions for blacks too anywhere in Zimbabwe to have access to loans, this issue of demanding security from communal farmers (whom Rhodes did not want to be in business anyway) must just stop!
There has to be a new way of doing business in Zimbabwe, the rudeness to blacks shown by banks must not be tolerated anymore! We therefore need new laws to deal with this stupid and primitive and racist situation, part of the laws must be to clarify how communal farmers and businesspeople should have access to loans as the economy cannot exist without the communal people, the majority in the country.
I am therefore challenging anyone to show us any rural district in Mashonaland that has developed faster than Tsholotsho since independence — and we want statistics here, not tribalistic sweeping sentiments echoing instructions from Cecil John Rhodes and Ian Smith. Let us be national, let us be nation builders like King Mzilikazi, King Lobengula, Dombodzuku, the Mambos, Mkhwathi Ncube, uGogo u Nehanda, Kaguvi, Prince Nyamande, Dliso Mathema, Mashayamombe, Gutu, Mapondera, Kunzvi Nyandoro, Sigombe Mathema, Rekayi Tangwena, Mtshana Khumalo, Mphoko Ndlovu, JZ Moyo, Herbert Chitepo, Joshua Nkomo and Simon Muzenda. If we do that,Tsholotsho and the whole of Matabeleland will be turned green as our trees during the summer season. And President Robert Mugabe carries the national flag high equally for all our provinces and peoples. Let us be like him when it comes to working for the people of Zimbabwe, and let us avoid myths and superstitions because they are dangerous.
This is the last instalment of Ambassador Cain Mathema’s analysis
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