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Voices from Lupane
Bulawayo Agenda
May 05, 2009

Lupane Agenda conducted a Public meeting at Matshakayile Primary school on Sunday 26 April 2009 to discuss the successes and challenges of the Inclusive government's first 71 days. The meeting was held under the topic, "The Inclusive Government's first 71 days: successes and challenges," and these are the issues that came out of the deliberations:

• People in Lupane are ready to participate in the constitution making process and have highlighted certain issues that they want to see in the new constitution. These include setting up of provincial governments that will enable provinces to administer their resources at local level.
• Although bread and butter issues have not been totally resolved because foreign currency is hard to come by for most people, the people noted that at least food is now available in shops and food prices have been gradually going down.
• Despite the challenges regarding remuneration, at least teachers were seen returning to the classrooms last term and they hoped that that would continue.
• It was noted that since the formation of the inclusive government Zimbabwe has been enjoying a commendable amount of political stability and tolerance. The people of Lupane commended the inclusive government saying that for the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, Independence Day was celebrated by everyone in Lupane regardless of their political affiliation.
• The people however expressed concern over failure by the inclusive government to resolve the outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement (GPA). These included the appointment of Provincial Governors, the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe Governor, the Attorney General and permanent secretaries. They said that these are issues the inclusive government was supposed to have resolved immediately after going into office to facilitate the smooth functioning of the administration however, for reasons that are unclear to the public these are yet to be resolved.
• They also highlighted that the constant breach of the GPA was disturbing as it risked the collapse of the inclusive government and in turn the political sanity the country is enjoying at the moment. This breach, they said, included the continuous arbitrary arrests of activists as well as failure to release political prisoners as agreed on in the GPA.

The meeting was held as part of the Bulawayo Agenda's public dialogue series that is designed to provide platform for members of the public to discuss topical issues affecting them. Speakers at the meeting included a resident of Lupane, David Nyathi, Magagadela Ncube, the Member of Parliament for Lupane East Njabuliso Mguni and the Senator for Lupane, Dalumuzi Khumalo.

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