Johanne Masowe school project hits snag

By Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

The Johanne Marange Apostolic Church has called on Government to remove bottlenecks that have made it difficult for them to acquire land for the construction of a school in Honde Valley.

The church, which has constructed several schools across the country, says it applied for land in Honde Valley in 2015 but has not been granted any since then.

Speaking at a development strategy stakeholders’ meeting last week, vice chairman for the committee set up to oversee the construction of the school, Mr Jacob Nyakunhuwa, said:

“The apostolic sect is very marginalised. Here in HondeValley, we have tried to establish a school since 2015. We approached Government for land but we have not been allocated any since then. When we approach council they tell us that our paperwork has gone to the Ministry of Education, the Environmental Management Agency and other departments but we never really get positive feedback from those departments,” he said.

“We feel that those departments have bottlenecks that prevent the smooth flow of developmental projects like ours. This means that if we have an investor who wants to come in and help us, they would get frustrated before we get the land.”

Mr Nyakunhuwa appealed to the Member of Parliament for Mutasa North, Cde Chido Madiwa, to take their plight to Parliament and ensure that laws that give preference to such cases are crafted.

“We ask you to ensure that Parliament comes up laws that make it easy for those who want to bring development in their areas. As a church, we are accused of not allowing our children to go to school, but now that we are doing something to change that, we are meeting obstacles. We want to ensure that our children have access to the same education as everyone else. We want to build this school for them and for future generations,” he said. The Herald