By Aaron Gono
The rains which battered the ancient city on Wednesday 6, November 2024, caught everybody by surprise.
In actual fact the rains were torrential accompanied by strong gushing winds. After only two hours of raining, Masvingo city was submerged. Everybody now understands the effects of the ozone layer depreciation. Fossil fuels are major cause of this climate change scenario, where we experience severe heat waves, colds, floods and droughts.
So we can we say the Masvingo city fathers cannot be blamed for things they didn’t create. The blame must be put squarely on China and America; who are the major polluters of the earth we live on. Those are two culprits, let us leave them, as they are both self centered and greedy and very distant and untouchable.
When Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, it had a vision for every five years, which resembled the Chinese Communist Party’s five year programmes. Things were happening for sure and civil servants were very, very professional. It was a hangover of the Rhodesian Front’s modus vivendi. Then complacency took the better part of them and everything became a hotchpotch of mediocrity.
Corruption and favouritism in recruitment became normal, and also politics determines who should be employed. But the guys who occupy offices at Civic Centre are highly educated and competent. So why are they failing the basic test of urban planning? For a city to function properly it must have good drainage, road signages and names, ablution facilities, parking spaces, street lights, cafeterias, hotels, leisure zones etc.
Masvingo has all the above, but now every rain season, residents complain of poor drainage. And after the rains are gone, do they (city fathers) take this issue seriously and do some mitigatory works. All blocked drainage systems must be de-blocked, in winter. It’s fortunate that old surburbs like Mucheke and Rhodene are not casualties, if they are it is because of newly poorly planned new locations that disturb their systems.
Rujeko A, B and C were sited on good grounds that had proper roads and sewer before people started building their houses. The damage of water flowing into houses is very low or none at all. I am not talking about those who built their houses too close to Mucheke River. Majange is also located professionally and some parts of Pangolin. Although we have some few sections where houses are in wetlands. Let’s just say it was just an oversight by the Engineering department.
Runyararo West and Victoria Range, that’s where all the blame for the city fathers cannot be hidden. These two locations resemble “Freedom Park” of Johannesburg. They are more like “skwata camps.” Every year they are on the news for flooding in houses and roads. That’s where you witness mediocrity in action. Victoria Range despite having state of the art houses, it has now sewer, electrical poles are now being put, roads lead you to nowhere.
No surfacing of roads, and no road planning at all. No street names, no road names, etc. The place is simply called ‘Victoria Range’ (kwa Jazire ). Housing for all by year 2000, was the mantra in the1980s and 1990s. And surely we achieved this the wrong way. It bred land baronism that can also be blamed for many unplanned new residential areas in many urban areas. At first land barons were perceived to be Zanu PF supporters. These myth were de-mystified in Masvingo urban, when the late Cllr Gapare of the MDC-T was found wanting. In Harare the opposition councillors are responsible for all land chaos there.
Zimbabwe has abundant land that allows good urban houses built with some dignity. Most houses in Rujeko C, Runyararo, Pangolin, etc you can share a cup of beer with your neighbor without bothering going to his hood. They are not flats like Matapi, but they resemble them, no privacy at all. The houses are just too close to each other. We can’t serve land like that, we need to preserve our dignity.
It’s fashionable in a polarized Zimbabwe to hear urban councillors blaming the ruling party or vice versa, for their short comings. When you are elected by the people to serve them, please do so. It’s high time we move on after elections and make sure you do something for the poor people who voted you in. We don’t want to hear that: ” if it is not Zanu PF that is sabotaging me, l should have done more.” That appeals to fanatics not to liberals.
Masvingo city fathers please do something on your drainage system because 6 November 2024, taught you a weekend lesson. When Masvingo runs dry, you always blame Zesa or the pump at Bushmead water works. Who is to blame now? Climate change…..l know kuti hamupererwe.
