The ManicaPost
Wendy Nyakurerwa-Matinde
Editor’s Musings
WE, the people of Manicaland, have a very long wish list.
For as long as this writer can remember, those in all urban areas have been crying for better service delivery; while those in rural areas have been beseeching for more opportunities, schools and clinics and better roads.
Fortunately, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, in typical Santa Claus’ style, has been making some wishes come true.
However, more wishes still need to be granted through the local authorities.
For all urbanites, the greatest headache has been the gargantuan bills that do not match service delivery; talk of street lighting, refuse collection and education levy, among other things.
The local authorities are just too good at remembering sending out those monthly bills. On time all the time.
However, when it comes to delivering the services, the zeal simply doesn’t match that of the revenue collectors.
When it comes to street lighting, the revenue collected is swallowed by the darkness that engulfs our city and towns day after day.
For Mutare residents in particular, all they want for Christmas is an end to the madness that is rocking the Civic Centre.
They wish the city fathers could smoke the peace pipe and join hands to find lasting solutions to their everlasting problems.
Plotting against each other along opposition political factional lines is proving to be detrimental to residents’ needs.
When it comes to Dangamvura residents, all they want is an end to their two decades’ dry season so that they can have water running from their taps as they celebrate Christmas.
The same applies to Rusape and Chipinge residents.
Their thirst can only be quenched by city fathers who are willing to forgo their retreats in Victoria Falls and other such places to put water provision on top of the priorities list.
Then there is the scourge of child marriages.
This year, Manicaland has been listed as the province with the fourth highest number of child marriages in the country.
Young girls are quaking in their shoes as every single one of them is a potential victim.
Every parent is worried about this phenomena which has the potential of dousing young people’s flames.
While we are still on that one, all we want for Christmas is for Anna Machaya’s defiler, Hatirarame Momberume, to be brought to book.
The young girl was taken in by Momberume as his wife at the tender age of 14.
She passed away in July during child birth at the Johanne Marange Church shrine in Mafararikwa.
Five months down the line and Momberume is yet to pay for his sins.
In fact, the child abuser is a wanted man after recently getting bail and then absconding court.
A warrant of arrest has since been issued against him.
However, it has been close to two weeks since he pulled out that no show card and the police say the manhunt is yet to yield any result.
We would really love it if justice was to be served this Christmas.
Then we can sleep easy knowing that those who abuse our children in the name of marriage will not walk scot free.
Then there are the ritual murderers. Cry the beloved Manicaland.
This past year saw the province enduring some of the most horrific murder cases. Remember the Benza cousins from Mutasa?
The two (both seven) were waylaid on their way from school and killed in cold blood before being dumped in a disused toilet.
Only last week, a five-year-old Nyanga girl was found dead in a mountain after going missing for a week.
The two cases are thought to have been done for ritual purposes and the conclusion of the investigations looking into them would be a bitter-sweet Christmas gift not just for the victims’ bereaved families but also for the entire Manicaland community.
But the province’s wish list also spills into the agricultural sector, the backbone of the provincial economy.
Farmers have their own problems and wishes.
Those that are benefitting from the Government sponsored Pfumvudza programme are at the mercy of corrupt councillors who are asking them to part with some dollars ostensibly for the transportation of the inputs from Grain Marketing Board depots to their respective wards.
The daylight robbers are stingy with information and conveniently want the beneficiaries to believe that Government would procure all those inputs and then forget to pay for the transportation.
What nonsense!
May the law of the land come down hard on these thieves because that is all the victims want for this Christmas.
But then it never rains for the farmers, it pours.
After sweating it out in their fields for months on end, some of them are struggling to sell their produce due to a deficit in fruit and vegetable markets across the province.
On several occasions, we have seen depressing images of farmers with their rotting farm produce.
May the responsible authorities look into this and construct the promised markets.
From Mutasa to Nyanga, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Rusape, Makoni and Mutare; if only half of these wishes could be granted; it will indeed be a Merry Christmas for the Manicaland folk.
Till next week, let’s chew the cud.
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