 |
| Bricks for the new school are already in place |
…as
construction of Mudzara Secondary begins
Brighton Chiseva
ZAKA – The long wait for
a secondary school that the people of Mudzara and Matembudze areas had endured
for all these years seems to be finally over after villagers organised
themselves and engaged the local leadership to work together on a new school
project.
Last
week. the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution
Ezara Chadzamira visited the school site at Chirambabango in Mudzara village
for the ground-breaking ceremony.
Credit
was given to Zaka West Member of Parliament (MP) Ophias ‘Maga-Maga’ Murambiwa
who helped revive plans that were made in 1998 but that had not seen the light
of the day as villagers bickered on the name of a school which had not yet been
built.
This
stemmed from the Mudzara and Matembudze families wrangles over the headmanship
of the area.
Mudzara
village head Daniel Mudzara confirmed that there had been a disagreement on the
name of the envisaged school for over 20 years.
“I suggested that the school should be called
Mudzara since every other school in this area is named after its host village but
the other side wanted it to be named after a mountain, a neutral name in their
opinion. As a result, we could not find each other.
“We
first talked about the school in 1998 but the disagreements persisted until
2018 when the current MP made a promise ahead of the elections to help people
agree so that the school could be built,” said Mudzara.
He
said it was unfortunate that they had all been petty and had cost their
children an opportunity to find secondary education closer home.
“Children
here walk long distances to the closest secondary schools so many of them have
dropped out after primary school. Those that have gone to secondary school have
not performed well because the conditions are not good,” he said.
Matigimu
village head, Joseph Mutubuki said he was pleased that they had finally put
aside their differences.
“We
could no longer allow the suffering of our children to continue. Nobody goes to
school when the rivers are full so it was only sensible that we work together
for a new school,” said Mutubuki.
On
her part, Cllr Maria Rangwani said the school will be helpful especially to
female pupils who were open to abuse when walking long distances to school.
“The
girls were the most affected as they would be lured into sexual activities
along the way. I am happy that a new school will be built,” she said.
Sitting
on 21-hectare piece of land, the school will serve pupils from 17 villages and
693 households once completed.
In
his speech at the ground-breaking ceremony, Chadzamira told villagers that he
supported the school project and praised Murambiwa for helping to make it
happen.
“This
is the kind of leadership we want. Your MP is a hard worker and we will support
his efforts to bring development to Zaka.
“We
want this project to be completed by next year and it should not be used for
political expediency. There are people who build up to window level and wait
for the next election so that they could use the same project to seek re-election,”
said Chdazamira.
Murambiwa
thanked his fellow MPs, councillors and the provincial authorities for
supporting the development aspirations of people in his constituency.
“People
in this area told me that they would make me MP for life if I helped them build
this school. I appreciate the support I am getting from the minister who is
here on behalf of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“The
Constituency Development Fund (CDF) we received from parliament has been
invested in this project and we will continue to do so until the job is done,”
said Murambiwa.
At
the moment, children are walking to Charingeno and Musenyereki B secondary as
well as to Magura High schools which are all more than 10km away.
Others
do ‘bush boarding’ in villages surrounding Rudhanda High which is 15km away but
is the best of all the schools.
