As the architects of Constitutional Amendment Number 3 prepare to illegally extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term by a further two years, the weather-beaten residents of Domboshava have acutely bad memories of his time in office.
Not only has the rehabilitation of the Domboshava road stalled for years, but it now takes almost two hours to drive the 33 kilometres from Harare to the main growth point at Showground in this hallowed land of my birth, a journey that used to take just over 30 minutes.
As they rally the nation to unconstitutionally extend the President’s term of office by another two years, this government has repaired only a few kilometres from Mverechena shopping centre to the bridge at Chogugudza primary school, that iconic school where then ICT minister Nelson Chamisa launched the e-learning national programme in the nostalgically prosperous years of the inclusive government.
Given this unbridled mediocrity where a whole government has taken years to rehabilitate less than five kilometres of road, the residents of Domboshava are wondering just why this dismal administration’s unmitigated failure should be rewarded with an extended term.
This month, April 2026, also marks exactly eight years since President Mnangagwa promised to tar the road that branches off from the main Domboshava road to Shumba ward, my own home area in this hallowed area of my birth and upbringing.
In April 2018, at a rally at Chirodzero shopping centre in Domboshava, popularly known as the Showgrounds, President Mnangagwa told thousands of gathered party supporters that he was of the Shumba Murambwi totem and had heard that there was an area called Shumba ward in Domboshava that had a very poor road.
He urged voters to vote for Zanu PF in 2018 and promised residents of Shumba ward that before the next election in 2023, the government would have tarred their road.
He reiterated his pledge that because he was of the Shumba totem, Shumba ward had benefitted from that shared name. He even gave a name for the promised highway to Shumba ward: he said it would be called the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnagagwa highway.
Today, eight years and two elections later, nothing has been done.
The so-called Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa highway is now in a very sorry state. It used to be a 30-minute drive of a poor road from the Showgrounds to Nyaure, the shopping centre in Shumba ward.
But it now takes more than an hour due to the epic disrepair of this presidential road.
When he made the solemn promise at the presidential rally in Domboshava in April 2018, President Mnangagwa was still finishing off Mugabe’s term. He had come to Domboshava to campaign for the then Zanu PF parliamentary candidate, Energy Mutodi, his homeboy from Masvingo.
But for the poor people of Shumba ward, the promise for a presidential highway has turned out to be nothing but a presidential nightmare.
The cosmetic preliminary optics were created merely for presidential deception.
Today, the pile of a few wheel barrows of quarry stones that were delivered almost 10 years ago near the late Mr Isidore Marimo’s house in Dzawara village, presumably for the ”intensive” presidential road rehabilitation project, has all but disappeared.
The quarry stones for the promised presidential highway have morphed into catapult pebbles for ravenous school boys seeking the delicacy of bird meat. Matombo emugwagwa wemanyepo wemukuru wenyika apedzwa zvawo nevakomana veshiri vachipfurisa njiva.
Four times in 2021, president Mnangagwa dispatched his nephew, Pearson Mbalekwa to my rural home at Tamborenyoka village in Shumba ward to try and convince me to join Zanu PF.
I was promised trinkets and a senior position in government if I sold out the democratic struggle and defected to Zanu PF, which offer I flatly rejected.
I flatly refused that offer and went public about it not only because I am allergic to anything to do with ZANU PF, but because I have never believed in the mercenary and transactional politics of personal benefit.
Some of us learnt from the very best.
Morgan Tsvangirai taught me that politics is a vocation for service and sacrifice for the community, never for personal benefit.
Instead of trying to give me money and a government position, I asked Mbalekwa whether upon driving to my rural home he had seen for himself the state of disrepair of his uncle’s promised Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa highway.
I told Mbalekwa that I was not for sale. I told him to go back and tell his uncle to forget about me and instead concentrate on fulfilling his pledge to the people of Shumba ward; the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa highway, whose epic disrepair today makes it a presidential highway of shame.
Today, for the people in the 23 villages of Shumba ward, the whole debate around Constitutional Amendment Number 3 has boiled down to the presidential lie around this road.
For them, this road is a key artery to markets and other important services, including the local rural district hospital at Makumbe mission.
They are wondering why a whole President who lied about upgrading their road would demand two more years in office!
For them, non-performers should never be rewarded.
For the people of Shumba ward, ZANU PF is replete with figures of deception, from the top right down to the local councillor, Brighton Sanyika, who has been in office for almost 20 years now.
Five years ago, on Saturday, 4 September 2021, I met councillor Sanyika at Banga village at the burial of Lazarus Mlauzi. I had just written an article where I had referenced ED’s promise about the Shumba highway.
Sanyika told me that only four days later on Wednesday, 8 September2021, heavy construction equipment would be in place at the steep ascent at Dzawara village to begin the construction work of the presidential highway.
But again, just like his President, the councillor was not telling the truth.
A few months ago, councillor Sanyika caused furore on the ward chat group when he asked Shumba ward residents to donate money towards rehabilitating this “presidential highway.
Some residents urged him to go and remind the President to come good on his promise, now that his government was donating cars to clowns, comedians and socialites.
The fact remains that today, almost a decade later since the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Shumba highway was proposed, with construction promised to be completed before the 2023 election, nothing has happened.
It was not just a lie. It was a presidential lie.
And the villagers of Shumba ward are publicly wondering why both the President and his team, down to the councillor, should be awarded an un-merited bonus of two more years in office without elections.
As for the MP, Beatrice Nyamupinga, residents know how she bought her seat and from who. We know all the characters who were involved as well as the parliamentary results that were changed with collusion at the polling stations at Chirodzero shopping centre and in ward one, Munyawiri.
We know of the US$80 000 stand in the ZimRe/ Ruwa area that was doled out and to who.
We also know of the agreed US$ 20 000 in cash payment, of which $ 5000 was paid in cash on the day of the election.
But that is a story for another day.
It is these buyers of cheap souls on the political market who want to unconstitutionally extend their time in office.
For the people of Domboshava, not only has the State abdicated its public works responsibility by asking residents to donate cash towards the construction of police accommodation at Chinamhora police station, popularly known as pachimudhuri; they also want the residents of Shumba ward to fund from their own pocket the construction of a police post at Nyaure clinic.
They now want two more years in office without elections, these doyens of unmitigated failure.
Conclusion: “Two more nights”
I want to conclude with light-hearted banter that I believe is an apt depiction of the unfolding 2030 moment.
But before others perceive my high-hearted banter to be in bad taste, I wish to first give the rider that children are a gift from God. Some get the blessing to conceive but others are not so lucky.
As humanity, all we can do is to accept our fate, regardless of whether or not we were favoured with the blessing of conception.
But on a lighter note, a story is told of a couple that spent 10 years without a child. One evening, the husband’s’ father-in-law came and regretted the failed conception. He said he was now taking away his daughter.
The son-in-law went down on his knees and begged his father-in-law not to take his wife away from him:: “Just give me two more nights” (Baba, ingondipai humwe husiku huviri chete.”
If they had failed to conceive in 10 years, there is genuine wonder on what novel conjugal antics could be conjured up in his pleaded moment of just 48 hours?
This is because there was a slim chance they could achieve in the pleaded moment that which they had dismally failed to achieve in the eternity of 10 years!
There is no need for names. We all know this son-in-law who failed to conceive in the eternity of 10 years and is now pleading for “just two more nights (years).”
Hanzi tipei humwe husiku huviri!
Luke Tamborinyoka is currently based in England. He is a citizen from Domboshava and is a journalist and a political scientist by profession. You can interact with him on his facebook page or via his X handle @luke_tambo
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