Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Provinces could be affected by devolution limitations
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
September 25, 2013

View this article on the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition website

Development practitioners in civil society have said the emerging limitations on devolution, owing to the appointment of Provincial Ministers could bureaucratize and retard the pace of development in the various provinces which are lagging behind.

A development practitioner working in Midlands, Mzwandile Ndlovu said the fact that devolution of power to the provinces was under siege made prospects of development in those areas bleak.

“It is a shame that devolution appears to be dying as that could have been the starting point,” he said.

Ndlovu said Zimbabwe’s central province was endowed with natural resources which could aid its development such as platinum, chrome and asbestos in places like Zvishavane and Shurugwi, and untapped gold deposits around Kwekwe.

“Efforts must be invested in supporting those in the mining industry to tap this wealth which should develop the province,” Ndlovu said. “Industry also needs to be revived in the largely dormant cities of Gweru and Kwekwe.

“Companies like Bata and David Whitehead are in dire need of recapitalization in Gweru while the Essar deal needs to be expedited to rescue the suffering Zisco employees in Kwekwe and Redclifff.

“Support also needs to be rendered to the struggling cotton farmers in Gokwe.”

Zivanai Muzorodzi, the Programs Manager of Masvingo-based Community for Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) said the introduction of Provincial Ministers could have been made on political rather than developmental considerations.

“The provincial minister will take over and fill the shoes of the previous Provincial Governors,” Muzorodzi said. “Their main task is not all about development but to maintain the supremacy of Zanu-PF and guard the constituency won by Zanu-PF.”

However Muzorodzi pointed to the fact that the southern dry region needed attention in many areas for it to develop.

“Masvingo is a drought stricken province and they are still silent about hunger and malnutrition in the province,” Muzorodzi said. “The dualisation of the cash cow Masvingo-Beitbridge road must be the main thrust.

“The revival of Cold Storage Commission(CSC) and the issue of livestock production, completion of Tokwe Mkosi dam, revival of Mashava asbestos mine; all these can be employment creation hubs for the youths if implemented in good faith.”

Commenting generally on the development program the new government must come up with over the next five years, Edison Chakuma, a former Workers’ Union Secretary General at Zimbabwe Sugar Refinery who is studying at Hamburg University in Germany, said there was need to look at export reduction.

“The Government should prioritize spending on water, roads, electricity and resuscitating closed companies,” he said. “And assisting farming especially maize, wheat and soya beans production, so that we cut down on food imports.

“Since we are not at war, the government must consider having a big irrigated farm that soldiers can do serious farming of maize, wheat and soya beans for country's reserves.”

Visit the Crisis in Zimbabwe fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP