US$2m for Chingwizi families

By Shame Makoshori

MASVINGO – Government will, within a week, start compensating the 3 000 families resettled in Chingwizi, seven months after they were displaced from their homes by raging floods that hit the Tokwe-Murkosi basin in February.

Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, the Minister of State for Masvingo Province, this week made a firm commitment that the cash-strapped government would, within a week, pay US$2 million to compensate the villagers resettled at Chingwizi.

The amount is a far cry from the US$9 million which the villagers are expecting to get from the government. While Bhasikiti did not disclose how the funds would be distributed, everything being equal, each family should receive US$666.

“We have received part of the compensation money,” Bhasikiti told villagers after a brief ceremony to hand-over brick moulding equipment donated to Tokwe-Murkosi Primary School by Junior Chamber International.

“Treasury has released US$2 million,” he said. “Next week we will be busy making sure you receive the money. I have pleaded with government to continue releasing funds,” he said. Government has been undertaking a multi-million dollar dam construction project at Tokwe-Murkosi to irrigate small scale farms in the region that suffers from perennial droughts.

But torrential rains, uncharacteristic of Masvingo, pounced the basin this year, swamping large swathes of fields and homes, marking the genesis of a difficult year for the victims who had to be swiftly relocated to Chingwizi Transit Camp near Triangle, over 100 kilometres away.

For months, the Chingwizi survivors had refused to leave the camp until government compensated them. But they were finally forced to move to one hectare plots near the camp after security forces stormed their tarpaulins last month following violent unrests in the camp.

Chingwizi villagers, who had become frustrated and cynical following government’s reneging on its promises to resettle them on larger tracts of land and the delays in the compensation, had made the transit camp a no-go area for government ministers. Bhasikiti was among several top government officials who were forced to flee the Chingwizi camp twice, after tempers flared, with hungry villagers demanding food and cash.

In a fit of rage, not typically characteristic of Zimbabweans who for years have docilely suffered broken promises at the hands of the powers that be, the villagers burnt a police car last month in protest. This ended with the crackdown by security forces, and a forced exodus into nearby mountain ranges by those suspected to be behind the crime.

Bhasikiti returned to face friendly fire, with women ululating and praising him as he unveiled Maoist projects to pacify them. Financial Gazette