By Staff Reporter

Masvingo City Council has said the local authority has no funds to construct another school in Runyararo West and the land that was reserved for the school will be given to Francis Aphiri for its expansion.
This comes after calls by residents urging council to build a secondary school in the suburb to cater for learners from the area.
Francis Aphiri Primary is set to construct a satellite school to ease its ever increasing enrolment on the land that was earmarked for the sole secondary school in the suburb.
This came out in a full council meeting held on Monday October 28 where it was noted that the Health, Housing and Environmental Services Committee resolved that Francis Aphiri be granted permission to use the land.
“The report of the Director of Housing and Social Services on the application by Francis Aphiri Primary School, for permission to construct a three-storey classroom block to ease the problem of hot sitting was considered.
“The Committee noted that the idea was noble but there was no space at Francis Aphiri Primary School, and also that the school was already congested since there were 2 650 learners. It was proposed and agreed that Council should offer the School a new site to establish a satellite school to ease congestion of learners at Francis Aphiri Primary School.
“It was proposed that the site originally earmarked for a Secondary school near North West Medical Clinic be changed to a Primary School site to accommodate the request by Francis Aphiri Primary School. The Committee agreed that the proposed storey building be constructed at the new site. The Committee also agreed that Council would avail another site for a public Secondary School in the locality,” read part of the committee minutes
The matter however sparked debate in council chambers as councilors felt they were doing a disservice to council by giving away land earmarked for a secondary school to a primary school.
Ward 2 Councillor Benson Hwata said it was not fair for council to delay construction of a secondary school in the area as learners were struggling to get places in the few secondary schools available.
“You want to allow the construction of another primary school in Runyararo West but where do you think all those learners will go? The available secondary schools are already congested yet you want to add another primary,” said Hwata.
Councillor Sheron Marombedze weighed in saying council was supposed to find another place for Francis Aphiri’s primary school extension or construct double storeys at the school.
Ward 5 councilor Daniel Mberikunashe said the reason why enrolment at Francis Aphiri was ballooning was a result of Victoria Ranch suburb which was not in Masvingo City’s jurisdiction so they were not supposed to be forced to make decisions based on that.
“The reason why Francis Aphiri’s enrolment continues to rise is because of learners coming from Victoria Ranch. The housing scheme there should avail land for schools to cater for the learners from there. We can’t be forced to make decisions because of people out of our jurisdiction. We cannot give away the land that we had allocated for a secondary school, it has to remain as such until we get resources to construct it,” said Mberikunashe.
Masvingo Town Clerck Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa however said the decision was made after considering that constructing a double storey at Francis Aphiri would mean more learners at the school and that would deprive other learners from accessing certain services like sport, as all the leaners would have to use the same grounds so some will end up failing to get a chance.
He said another reason was that the area was closest to the main Francis Aphiri school for easy management and council would negotiate with another church which had been given land to construct a primary school but was failing and if they agree, council will repossess the land for construction of a secondary school and the church will get another place.

By Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI-Chiredzi Town Council recently assured its stakeholders that Zimbabwe’s largest beer garden, Chigarapasi, which was closed on September 30, 2024 following the expiration of the operator Big Five Beers’ lease, will be reopened soon after following the proper tendering procedure.
Initially, the council closed down Chigarapasi in December 2016 in compliance with a Ministry of Local Government, Public Works, and National Housing directive that stipulated that non-profit-making entities were to be closed.
This led to an outcry as over 1000 families were making a living from the beer hall and the local authority resolved to lease the property in 2017.
Big Five Beers had been operating the beer garden since then until the expiry of the lease prompting the closure of the beer hall awaiting another tender process.
Speaking to journalists during the Chiredzi Town Council media engagement at Clevers Hotel recently, CTC Chairperson Jameson Charumbira said the tendering process of the beer garden would be held soon.
“I want to assure you that we have not yet awarded anyone with a lease to operate the Beer garden, but we are in the process of assessing the situation at the beer hall before we tender. As councillor, we are not involved anyhow in the tendering process, and I would like to inform you that due diligence will be taken before awarding anyone with the lease,” said Charumbira.
Chigarapasi beer hall opened doors in the early 1980s mainly as a recreational place for the low-income earning workers in the Lowveld sugarcane industry and seats on16 273 square meters.

…as dogbites plague Masvingo

By Virginia Njovo

Masvingo City Council has resolved to engage Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) to shoot stray dogs across Masvingo City as dog bites continue to rise in the country’s oldest town.
This was revealed in the full council meeting held recently where the local authority said the Health, Housing and Environmental Services Committee had agreed that the city’s public relations office should notify residents of the tie up order.
“On the dog tie up order, the request to engage the Zimbabwe National Army at a cost of stray dog shooting in the commonage was granted, the Public Relations Office was tasked to advise residents on the dog tie and shooting exercise,” reads the minutes.
Commenting on the resolution, Masvingo Urban ward 1 councillor Sabina Chikwangwani said council should not notify residents of the tie up order as it will yield no results because people would tie up their dogs and release them after.
“This is a great move especially in my ward; there is lot of unleashed dogs. I therefore request authorities that they do not give notice to residents but come unannounced because once they are notified, they will leash their dogs and free them after so they will continue roaming,” said Chikwangwani.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) recently showed that Masvingo Province was recording high cases of dog bites since last year.
Masvingo City recorded fifty-seven dog bites in six months.
Masvingo City Council Public Relations Officer Ashleigh Jinjika told TellZim News earlier that they were working with other relevant stakeholders to try and control the situation.
“As Masvingo City, in the first half that is from January to June 2024, we have recorded a total number of 57 dog bites, a figure which is worrisome.
“Stray animals especially dogs spread deadly diseases such as rabies and parvovirus which pose threat to human life through bites and attacks therefore we encourage residents to report stray animals to the Municipal Police and Health Department,” said Jinjika.
She urged pet owners to comply with the regulations and ensure that they licence their pets as well as vaccinating them so as to reduce the spread of rabies and other infectious diseases since there were penalties for non-compliance.
Council also once suggested that they take stock of the number of dogs in the commonage and assign water meter readers to take stock to enable council to institute control measures on the number of dogs per each household.
Apart from stray dogs, the local authority was facing a new challenge of stray cattle which were seen roaming in areas like Rhodhene, Zimre Park as well as Eastvale.
The full council resolved that they will craft a bylaw that enables the local authority to detain stray animals and fine the owners since they had no such bylaw because the issue was new.

By TellZim reporter

Residents through the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET), are set to petition Masvingo City Council over the way consultation meetings were conducted, which they said excluded some residents.
VISET director Samuel Wadzai said residents felt that the City Council’s budget consultations were inadequate and missed key issues.
The organization recently convened a meeting to help residents outline their priorities which they failed to submit to council during the consultations.
“Residents believe that many important issues were overlooked by the City Council. They have noted that they want council to give priority to Health and Education issues in the city.
“The ultimate outcome of the meeting was a 10-point plan, which we will share with the council in form of a petition before the release of the draft budget. This petition will be signed by residents before being submitted to the council,” said Wadzai.
During the engagement meeting conducted by VISET collaborating with Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA), residents raised concern over the way budget consultation meetings were held and called council to prioritize health and education issues in its 2025 budget.
A resident, Itai Banda, said during the just ended consultations meetings some councilors were politicizing the consultation process leaving the process with some gaps.
“During consultations, I noticed some councilors selecting their supporters, providing them with specific talking points for the budget consultations, as if they were representing all residents. I also observed that those who attended the meetings wearing t-shirts of the same color were preferentially selected to provide input, while others were denied the opportunity,” said Banda.
Sungano Zvarebwanashe, a Ward 4 resident said, Masvingo City Council should give more priority to maternity facilities and resources at its clinics.
“In its budget, the council should allocate funds for the provision of a doctor at council clinics. This could be either a visiting or resident doctor. Additionally, every council clinic should have a maternity wing and a sufficient number of midwives,” said Zvarebwanashe.
Leah Matavire, a ward 5 resident said in the budget, Council should set aside enough money to construct new council schools so as to decongest the overpopulated council schools and to tame the issue of mushrooming of unregistered schools in the communities.
“I have noticed an increase of unregistered schools in the commonage which may lead to poor educational results and abuse of children, some of the council schools are over populated and some now have three hot seating learning sessions at primary level,” said Matavire.
Rejoice Maridza, a participant at the meeting also raised the need for the council to allocate funds to upgrade local council libraries to suit modern standard, which could help reduce drug abuse and promote quality education.