MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has reportedly been prevented from building a boarding school and hospital in his residential area of Ward 23, Chiwara.
A report by local tabloid Masvingo Mirror reveals that the Gutu Rural District Council, led by its chairman Nicholas Zambara, ensured that Chamisa’s good initiative was ransacked.
Gutu South has 10 secondary schools and one boarding school (Mukaro High), and the majority of children in the district walk 17 km to school each day.
Students in the area leave their homes at 4 a.m. and some do not return until 8 p.m.
The only other boarding school in the constituency is Sandon Academy, an expensive private school owned by Zanu PF National Security Secretary Lovemore Matuke.
According to the details, the debate almost degenerated into a fight during a full council meeting on Thursday, when Zambara claimed that the villagers of Chiwara had rejected the idea of the school and the hospital.
He was backed in his demands by Chiedza Tafirei, Gutu district’s acting development coordinator.
He said the villagers told him that the school and the hospital were taking a lot of land from them.
The exchange became so bitter that Zambara threatened to exclude Ward 33 councilor Benard Chimwango, who supported the project, from the meeting.
Some council members, however, would have no role in telling Zambara that he put Zanu PF politics ahead of the welfare of the same people he was elected to the council for.
