Three weeks in poverty stricken Mberengwa

By Sibanengi Dube

MBERENGWA- It is sweet to be home, but the same cannot be said with reference to where I was nurtured: Mberengwa. For the past 11 years I never got the chance to spend more than a week in the home rural district. This time around, I camped in my dusty and poverty stricken Mberengwa for three weeks.

The only solace I enjoyed was the company of my family members, but the rest was horror. I am sorry to sound unpatriotic, but allow me to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon. My opinion should not be interpreted as spews of hate for my beloved district of birth.

I am just being honest and brave by calling a thug a thug and not a gentleman. This is however not a dirge, but a citation of what needs to be attended to. I drove the width and breath of Mberengwa South attending community meetings, funerals, church services and weddings.

My small sedan absorbed serious nervous tension from the pathetic roads. At one moment the car flashed ‘a no road sign’ on the dash board and disengaged the engine. A journey that should take 20 minutes under normal circumstances takes five hours in Mberengwa. The maximum safe speed one can clock in the ugly gully roads can never be above 20 km/h.

I was greeted with hopelessness and deficiency written on the faces of most of the people I met. I started asking myself what exactly leaders of the GNU are talking about when they claim to have alleviated the people’s suffering. People are excessively skeletal as if they feed on wire.

I noted with regret that huge numbers of people throng funerals hoping to walk away with a full belly. A hungry and desperate electorate is very vulnerable as they can be easily manipulated with carrots like rabbits. I asked myself what exactly the previous and current Members of Parliament for Mberengwa were doing for the past 31 years, except dolling out agricultural implements during election years.

It dawned on me that the Zanu PF zealots who have been snatching the constituency in my area have been doing nothing for the district other than lining their pockets. The coming generation of Mberengwa shall one day urinate on top of the graves of our previous MPs in denunciation of the kind of deception they have subjected us to.

The current generation will have to explain what they were doing as the district was being gobbled by Zanu PF functionaries. Of course the genuine answer is that most of us did nothing. Aren’t we ashamed?

I am yet to think of any place in the universe with gravel roads that stretch for more than 200 kms in these post-modern periods. There are no roads to talk about in Mberengwa. What was once roads are now deep streams? In some areas along a road from Mberengwa offices to Mnene Mission, what resemble the road are heaps of boulders that mercilessly wreck cars.

The worst part of the road is in Mwembe around the home area of the late Richard Hove who was our MP and Senator for a combined period of more than 20 years. This is the same area where another late MP Byron Hove was domiciled. The pack of MPs of Mberengwa who virtually produced nothing for the district includes Ben Mataka, J.Shumba, Jorum Gumbo, Nhlongwane, Mai Shirchena and Jabulani Mangena.

Mberengwa should be the most developed district in Zimbabwe because it is gifted with rich mineral deposits. The district is the only site in the world that produces K-grade emeralds. Emeralds were the most sought after minerals throughout the 1960s to the 1990s. Some of us are still to understand why the emerald glitter managed to elude Mberengwa for all these decades.

Sandawana and Masaga Mines continued to be foreign owned and their proceeds were parachuted out of the district in full view of Mberengwa residents. What was left as evidence of cremation are mining dumps along Mweza range. Mberengwa also has chrome and iron deposits at Inyala and Buchwa Mine respectively. Only Satan can explain where the proceeds of these minerals ended up at. What is clear is that the final destination of the minerals was never Mberengwa.

The only stretch of tar starts at Matedzi and end a few meters before Mataga growth Point, a mere 10 km distance. It has been like this since 2000. The tarred strip has fallen prey to Zanu PF politicians who use it as a campaign pawn during election years.

Now that elections are around the corner, the tarred strip might be extended by a few meters into the Growth Point as Zanu PF candidates try to woo votes. Of course work will abruptly come to a stand-still as soon as the ballots are cast.

My other port of call was Gwai Primary where I did my primary education, 25 years ago. The school looks dilapidated. The same paint that we left in 1986 is still hanging loosely on the walls. This pathetic situation is not only limited to Gwai School, but is shared by hundreds of other schools that are dotted around the district.

Most rural townships seem to have disappeared. Gwai Township resembles a ghost spot as 98% of the shops stand abandoned and collapsing. The tale is the same at Makuva Township, Danga, Dunda and Gwarava. The buildings are crumbling down as the ugly economic situation in the rural areas continues to bite deep into the pockets of the general populace.

What is clear is that the district is decaying in full view of its residents. There is dust and poverty. Is this the Mberengwa we all want? People have been literally reduced into beggars. Everyone including teachers and other civil servants are not even ashamed to openly solicit for drinks or food from anyone coming from the Diaspora.

Statements like: “Ndisiire one kashamwari, haungadzokeri ndisina kumwa drink yako,” are now communal anthems in Mberengwa. What is encouraging however is that the majority of the people have now come to terms with the fact that MDC has the potential to bring better living conditions than Zanu PF.

Rural folk from this part of Zimbabwe are now politically complex? They sing Zanu PF hymns using their lips but recite MDC objectives and aims with their heart. They have managed the art of balancing two contrasting scenarios: their love for Chinja and avoiding beatings from Zanu PF thugs by publicly pretending to support them.

One Zanu PF fanatic and headman in around Mberengwa confided to me that he will be surprised if Zanu PF was to retain even a single Seat in Mberengwa.

“Look it is difficult now to know who exactly is with us, because people are concealing and pretend to be one of us, but what is clear is that everyone is angry with Zanu PF,” said one headman.

Mberengwa is 103kms away from the nearest town of Zvishavane in the Midlands Province. The district is inhabited by mostly Karangas, but has sprinkles of Ndebele speaking people.

Sibanengi Dube is a former student leader who later became a journalist in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. He has also previously served as MDC-T spokesman in South Africa.