Zim-Asset awards for villagers

Herald Reporter
Villagers who excel in implementing Zim-Asset programmes will be rewarded with cattle as a way of encouraging communities to work towards the full implementation of the Government’s economic blueprint.

This was revealed at Matandamaviri Business Centre in Nyahombe Resettlement area in Chivi South by Chivi Rural District Council chairperson Dr Killer Zivhu while addressing hundreds of communal farmers during a zonal agricultural show on Wednesday.

Dr Zivhu pledged 36 beasts that will be given to winners under an inaugural “village Zim-Asset” competition where villagers will be rewarded for excelling in areas such as crop production, market gardening, fruit production and cattle rearing, among other fields of endeavour.

Dr Zivhu, who is also the Zanu-PF provincial secretary for Finance in Masvingo, challenged Zimbabweans to use locally-available resources to achieve self-reliance if the country is to meet its socio-economic development targets set under Zim-Asset. He said people should stop waiting for Government and donors to initiate development in their communities. Dr Zivhu said successful implementation of Zim-Asset will greatly transform the lives of Zimbabweans.

He said the biggest ingredient required to successfully implement Zim-Asset was human resources.

“My challenge to everyone is that it’s high time we stopped waiting for Government or donors to come and do everything for us,” he said. “Before asking what others are doing for us, let us introspect and ask what we are doing for ourselves.

Dr Zivhu urged Zimbabweans to adopt what he called ‘village Zim-Asset’ where people initiated development at a village level that will cascade to the larger society.

Dr Zivhu hailed the role played by women in bringing development mainly in rural communities, saying females were the bedrock of any developed society owing to their dedication and commitment to work.

He challenged communities to mobilise and clean up schools, repair battered roads and bridges, among other tasks that improved lives in their localities.

Villagers in the Nyahombe area appealed to the Government to revive the cotton industry, saying most of them had been impoverished by low cotton prices.