The year 2023 will always be remembered as a year when Masvingo took a great leap forward and a giant step on the road to socio-economic transformation.
This is evidenced by numerous epochal developments on the economic front that are pivoting the province on an irreversible path to prosperity in sync with the Second Republic’s vision to make Zimbabwe an upper middle income economy by 2030.
Masvingo’s economy is hinged on agriculture, mining and tourism and these sectors loomed large in the province’s development matrix in 2023, setting the stage for major metamorphosis on the socio-economic landscape.
Devolution, like always, once again emerged as the province’s best foot forward in terms of leapfrogging the provincial economy that has been on a rebound amid a target to expand into a US$8 billion economy by 2030.
Agriculture
In the agricultural sector, the province continued to fare well particularly in the sphere of irrigation development which saw the province putting a record hectarage under wheat, adding impetus to the country’s wheat self-sufficiency.
The province managed to put an unprecedented over 2 100 hectares under winter wheat which was mostly grown at various irrigation schemes in the province.
Government gave the province a shot in the arm by reviving and rehabilitating several irrigation schemes under the smallholder irrigation revitalisation programme.
Among these irrigation schemes are Mara and Stanmore B and Mushandike in Masvingo district, Fuve-Panganai in Zaka, Rupangwana, St Joseph, Tshovani and Chilonga in Chiredzi, Rozva in Bikita and Lapache in Mwenezi, all which are now all contributing to household and provincial food security while also boosting income for rural families in those districts.
Great Zimbabwe University’s Chivi School of Dryland Agriculture this year started transforming into the province’s arrow-head to beat off hunger with the centre contracting hundreds of communal farmers in Mwenezi and Chiredzi to grow traditional grains. The institution will buy the grains before processing them into various products that will be sold to generate revenue while also capacitating farmers in the arid rural districts to be food secure.
The US$3 million Gonarezhou Veterinary Game Cordon fence was also commissioned in Chiredzi district with the 192-km fence bringing relief to surrounding communities battling perennial bouts of foot-and-mouth disease and also human/wildlife conflict as game from the vast Gonarezhou National Park foraged into neighbouring communities following the destruction of the perimeter fence.
Rebuilding of the fence is one of the signature projects of the Second Republic in the Lowveld after work started in 2018 and was completed this year, marking the dawn of a new era in the fight against foot-and-mouth as Zimbabwe seeks to reclaim niche beef exports markets across the globe. President Mnangagwa as patron of the Development Trust of Zimbabwe(DTZ) which owns Nuanetsi Ranch handed over 85 000ha to the Masvingo provincial leadership to resettle landless people and regularise settlements of others who had been staying in the vast piece of land, that bisects Mwenezi and Chiredzi districts, since the turn of the millennium.
The move by President Mnangagwa has already seen settlers in the Masangula, Chingwizi and Mutirikwi sections at Nuanetsi getting permits with the figure expected to increase from the current 1 100 beneficiaries to around 4 500 in the near future.
Tugwi-Mukosi Dam
Plans to fully utilise Tugwi-Mukosi Dam water to stimulate socio-economic development across Masvingo and make the province the national irrigation hub also went a gear up this year after Cabinet approved the irrigation and spatial plans for the dam project.
This development opens doors for 24 anchor projects that have been identified there to start being implemented for the greater national good. Government, through the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works has already announced that 2024 will be the year the dam will start accruing benefits for the province and nation at large. Government envisions a modern new city like Kariba on the entire 160ha Tugwi-Mukosi shoreline.
A Tugwi-Mukosi investment forum is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024 in a development anticipated to open floodgates of investment.
Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam has already started benefiting surrounding communities through irrigation with the Banga Irrigation scheme near Ngundu already undergoing expansion to increase the hectarage under irrigation, thanks to the dam’s water.
At Nyahombe in Chivi an 80ha irrigation scheme is taking shape and will use Tugwi-Mukosi water.
This dam will eventually irrigate more than 40 000ha in Mwenezi, Chivi and Chiredzi helping to form the anticipated 200 000ha Lowveld greenbelt that will produce crops such as sugarcane, maize, wheat and citrus plantations, among other crops. The planned greenbelt falls under the purview of the Lowveld Integrated Irrigation Master Plan but also hinges on the completion of Runde-Tende Dam that will be built at the confluence of Runde and Tende rivers in southern Chivi.
Besides irrigating an additional 35 000ha in Mwenezi, Chivi, Chiredzi and parts of Masvingo districts, Runde-Tende Dam is also expected to supply water to South Africa’s northern province earning the country foreign currency.
Tongaat Hulett US$40 million project
This year, 40 beneficiaries under Tongaat Hulett’s US$40 million Kilimanjaro Project were allocated plots at Hippo Valley estates. Tongaat has since donated the remainder of 4 000ha initially earmarked to be put under sugarcane under this project to Government.
This land has already been distributed to landless people within and without the province as part of the Government’s empowerment drive. Trained youths drawn from across Masvingo province were also allocated 10ha plots at Mwenezana estates in Mwenezi mainly to venture into horticulture.
Commercial sugarcane farmers
The year, however, was not a bed of roses for hundreds of indigenous commercial sugarcane farmers at Hippo Valley, Triangle and Mkwasine estates who are beneficiaries of the land reform as the industry was hit by a myriad of challenges. Chief among these challenges was recurrent breakdown of sugar mills and opening of the country’s borders to allow an influx of cheap sugar into the local market which made locally made sucrose uncompetitive. Recurrent mill breakdowns also meant farmers’ cane took longer in the fields leading to the deterioration of quality.
Tourism
A number of projects were rolled out across the province to spur socio-economic growth with the rehabilitation of the Buffalo Range International Airport in Chiredzi top on the list of projects. Government also funded construction of liberation war heritage sites such as Kamungoma Shrine in Gutu where 104 villagers and one freedom fighter were massacred by Rhodesian forces during a night vigil (pungwe) meeting in May 1978.
Government, through the National Museums and Monuments in Zimbabwe built a shrine at Kamungoma, including a gallery where the history of the Kamungoma battle and other battles fought during the liberation struggle will be documented.
The annual Lake October festival which draws thousands of domestic tourists to various attraction sites across Masvingo also grew in magnitude adding another feather on the province’s tourism landscape.
Another milestone was the completion of the US$475 000 Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Cultural preservation project that was commissioned in April this year.
The project funded by the US government under the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation helped the world heritage site to regain its glamour through combating the invasive lantana camara alien species on the Hill complex, improving data collection at the monuments, upping skills on stone conservation and carrying out urgent preservation works at the World Heritage Site in the process positioning it at the zenith of tourist attraction sites in Zimbabwe.
This again is in sync with Government’s decision to position tourism as one of the arch pillars of the economy in line with Vision 2030.
Mining
Mining was another key area where major developments took place in the process fuelling the province’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) upwards.
Top on the list of major mining developments in the province was the continuation of the US$300 million investment by a Chinese firm Sinomine which last year snapped a 100 percent stake in Bikita Minerals, one of the country’s biggest producers of lithium.
This year saw Sinomine injecting additional funding into construction of a spodumene and petalite processing plants at the mine. The project was commissioned by President Mnangagwa in October and represented a milestone in the province’s evolution into a mining hub.
The investment increased the number of Bikita Minerals Sinomine employees to over 1 000 while hundreds more are indirectly employed as they work for several contractors operating at the mine.
Government has already given lithium miners in the country a March 2024 deadline to submit plans of further value-addition to their lithium beyond concentrates into carbonates for manufacture of lithium batteries.
Bikita Minerals Sinomine this year also approached the Government for permission to build a new bridge at Birchenough to replace the existing one which is a key link between Masvingo and Manicaland province which is an export gateway via Mozambique.
Completion of a chrome processing plant that was built by the Zimbabwe Zhongxin Smelting Company at a cost of over US$70 million near Mhandamabwe in Chivi was also a boon for hundreds of small scale chromite miners in and around the chrome-rich area of Mashava and will no doubt open more employment opportunities while stimulating the economy in the former asbestos mining town. In the Masvingo industrial area, the Sponge Iron Mining and Beneficiation Industries(SIMBI) plant owned by Steelmakers is undergoing expansion and also value adding its products to produce steel. The development has seen the firm increasing the number of its employees and will benefit the provincial and national economies by cutting the runaway steel import bill.
Harare–Masvingo-Beitbridge highway
Completion of 10km stretches of dual carriageways in and out of Masvingo along the newly rehabilitated Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway were among major signature projects that were rolled out in Masvingo, adding another spectacle to the highway which is arguably the country’s busiest by virtue of being the link to South Africa hitherto Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner.
Devolution
Devolution has been a major driver of socio-economic transformation in Masvingo where more than 41 clinics were constructed and are at various stages of completion in the province. In the city, Runyararo North West Medical Centre was completed using devolution funds bringing relief to residents in the western suburbs. Several other new clinics are at various stages of completion in districts such as Gutu, Zaka and Bikita. Scores of new primary and secondary schools are also taking shape in the province courtesy of devolution funding and in Masvingo urban area, the new Rujeko Secondary School has greatly reduced an acute shortage of secondary school places in the city.
The refurbished Chitima market in the city, Rujeko footbridge and Cambria dumpsite were also completed thanks to the devolution initiative.
Politics
On the political arena the major highlight was the August 2023 harmonised elections which saw Zanu PF maintaining its stranglehold on the province’s political landscape.
The ruling party trounced the opposition in the Presidential vote where President Mnangagwa the Zanu PF candidate amassed over 300 000 votes compared to his main challenger Mr Nelson Chamisa of CCC who got around 100 000. Zanu PF swept all the 26 National Assembly seats save for Chiredzi Central and Masvingo Urban that went to the opposition CCC.
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After the watershed elections that officially marked the death of the opposition in Masvingo province, Masvingo West National Assembly member and Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira was reappointed for another tenure in office by President Mnangagwa giving leeway to continue with his agenda to engender socio-economic development in Masvingo in line with Vision 2030.
President Mnangagwa also appointed another Zanu PF heavyweight from the province Cde Lovemore Matuke as the Minister of Presidential Affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet.
Zanu PF was to send another message about its unfettered dominance in Masvingo after its candidate in the Gutu West parliamentary election Cde John Paradza convincingly won a by-election held on November 11 when he garnered over 12 000 votes with his nearest challenger an independent candidate Mr Sebastian Mudzingwa getting less than 2 000 votes.
Cde Paradza, who is also the deputy secretary for Youth Affairs in the politburo was subsequently appointed the Deputy Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife by President Mnangagwa after his crushing win.
Herald
