The recent story published by Newsday about the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and co-operative Development ,Sithembiso Nyoni,who is the MP for Nkayi North ,made sad reading. She called for a political rally in her constituency disguised as a “development” meeting.
This is not only a move by a misguided and an incompetent MP, but a telling example of someone who has lost the meaning of what it means to be a leader. The story made me sympathize with the people in her constituency who had walked for long distances on foot given the shortage of transport owing to a poor road network, with the hope that they were going to get funds for income generating projects. To their surprise, it turned out to be a ZANU PF political rally campaign. What still boggles my mind is why the honourable minister is not shameful for staging such a moronic gaffe, designed to take people for granted. For how long shall the people of Kana and Gokwe be taken for granted by successive politicians?
One after the other, over the years, they have neglected, abused Constituency Development Funds (CDF) at the expense of development in their constituencies. Nothing of significance has been done in Nyoni’s respective constituency. It is no news that Matebeleland North is underdeveloped. It is shocking now that many MP’s have made a beeline in the region to try and lure voters with impending pools looming. They do so under the sickening rhetoric of developing their constituencies.
What these brown-envelope seeking MP’s should be reminded is that the electorate has been shortchanged and cheated so many times. The community leaders in Nyoni’s constituency threatened to beat Nyoni because they are now tired of her sickening blatant lies. The electoral bell of change and defeat continues to toll for MP’s such as Sithembiso Nyoni.
The time is up especially for the masters of old school tricks and deception such as Sithembiso Nyoni( Nkayi North) Flora Buka(Gokwe Nembudziya),Mpukuta Lovemore(Gokwe –Mapfungautsi),Mushore Luke(Gokwe-Gumunyu),Ngwenya Busy(Gokwe-Kana),Sai ShaddyGokwe –Sengwa) and Sindi Cephas(Gokwe Chireya ,their eleventh hour is nigh. They have failed to transform Gokwe and Kana into a modern community with at least basic amenities during their terms in office. Some have made empty promises designed to gain Machiavellian mileage aimed at deceiving the electorate but this time around, they will be fail dismally. Theirs is going to be an electoral defeat that is going to put to an end to the suffering of people in Kana and Gokwe. Nkayi today resembles an ancient community with no basic amenities, a poor road system, few schools, and two hospitals.
The story in Nkayi is sad, many people walk for many kilometers to access the only missionary hospital, Kana Mission Hospital and the one in Nkayi, where there is shortage of staff, no drugs, where patients who are admitted to the hospital are required to bring their own food. That is not all, the mortuaries are dysfunctional, and the hospitals cannot access adequate anti-retroviral drugs owing to a dilapidated and poor road network. The roads are dusty from Nkayi town all the way to Gokwe Centre. This makes it difficult for people to access schools and hospitals etc.
Gokwe Centre is the only place where there are tarred roads; from there the roads become dusty. What it means is transport operators shun the Nkayi-Gokwe or Gokwe-Manoti route because of poor road network and high operating costs. The few buses that ply the route cannot meet the transport woes that affect the people. In areas such as Kana and Gokwe, you have to wake up during midnight just to catch a bus, an ancient phenomenon whereby there was only one bus to service one route. What this means for the ordinary man in Nkayi-Gokwe is that they will have to walk on foot to access a hospital, schools, etc.
What these MP’s want are mere votes at the expense of development. For them the state of the road doesn’t bother them, because when they visit their remote, dilapidated constituencies, they will travel comfortably in their SUV’S and 4x4’s vehicles.
The need for community development such as having tarred roads does not bother them. At one point the MP for Gokwe-Kana, Ngwenya Busy, attempted to build a mortuary at Kana Mission Hospital when he won the election, but to date the development on the mortuary has since stopped.Noone has an explanation why the construction stopped. Most of the time he is seen by members of the community in his immaculate Isuzu 4x4 truck at Kana Mission Shops where he operates a grocery shop. No one, not even the revered community leaders from the headman to the chief can dare seek for an explanation from him for fear of being branded an MDC supporter and sellout.
Kana-Gokwe still lags behind in terms of real development, thanks to Econet which erected a booster at Kana Mission recently but the development in communication is not corresponded by infrastructural development.Sithembiso Nyoni can afford to abuse the people in her constituency by making false promises so as to win their support but her time of reckoning is nigh.
The false and deceptive meeting called by Nyoni reveal the deception of an incorrigible sell-out who has abandoned her constituency for the bogus luxuries that come with being an MP.So what development can she talk about when her own constituency lies in derelict? The people must vote wisely and give the boot to such tricksters. The people in Kana and Gokwe,have the power to change predicaments and circumstances, and this can be achieved by voting against such manipulative MP’s who have inflicted emotional pain and stress on them while they enjoy luxuries.
Gokwe-Kana is home for most of us, not an experimental ground for successive MP’s to carry out tests.
Rawlings Magede writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on rawedge699@gmail.com who writes from Nkayi, Matabeleland North province.
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