Who will rescue Birchenough?

Birchenough Bridge, pictured above, is a spectacular structure built years back by Sir Henry Birchenough in the south tip of Buhera South Constituency, Bsc. This area has been lagging behind in development and not much has been done by the local authorities to put the vibrant area on the spotlight. MPs are voted in and out every election time, but none of them have taken the area seriously.

One resident of Gunura speaking on condition of anonymity said, “the problem with anyone voted into power in Bsc is that they always want to feed themselves and those of their ilk first before they can think of the electorate, the people who voted them”. With this kind of attitude he said that it will take time before Buhera South could be uplifted economically. He jokingly said that it was even better to get someone from outside our borders to represent them in Parliament.  

Recently the current MP for the area Hon Naison Nemadziva’s name was dragged into the mud for failing to produce on time a report on how the US$50 000 Constituency Development Funds was spent. One wonders whether it’s incompetence, incapacity or incapability by our MPs to fail to steer the constituency to greater heights, or is simply greediness and lack of political will and leadership failing them.    

Birchenough is a low lying area which receives little to no rainfall and so farming is not the best means of production in Bsc. One would be surprised why the place is not a resort area by virtue of the uniqueness and ingenuity with which the bridge was built, but again politics has not favoured the place since time immemorial.

To the south of Bsc lies Devuli Irrigation Scheme which is currently doing well despite some hiccups here and there, and just some 15kms to the north of Birchenough, there is another Irrigation Scheme that has become a white elephant - Bonda Irrigation Scheme.

This Irrigation Scheme had come as a relief to many in the areas of Gunura, Nechishanyi, Kufakwatenzi, but alas, the unavailability of water due to engine breakdown at Devure River has rendered the scheme an upstart. Proceeds from the sale of farm produce such as tomatoes, beans, vegetables, maize meal, had helped the people around Bonda Irrigation Scheme in many ways; to pay for school fees for their children, to pay for milling fees and generally it had nutritiously benefited their health.    

The question that many ask is whether there was ever a Parliamentary Vote to complete the Murambinda-Birchenough Bridge Road, a Vote to buy the engine that is supposed to supply water to Bonda Irrigation Scheme, a Vote to finish the Rural Electrification Programme from Zvigayo to Gunura Clinic, Gunura Primary and Secondary, Gunura Shopping Centre and to proceed to Nechishanyi and Nemadziva and up to Mudanda Shopping Centre.

Makanyise's Quotable Quotes - 3rd Five

1.   There is nothing on this world that is as difficult to repair as a damaged reputation.

2.   The only and most important consolation and relief in spiting, bad-mouthing someone is that everything will eventually settle down, they will come over it.

3.   Forgiveness with reservation is as good as one step forward and two steps backwards.

4.   Decision making is a thumbnail of future outcomes.

5.   One lesson in life is never wish your neighbour bad omens for you don’t know where your son will marry.

Makanyise's Quotable Quotes - 2nd Five

1.   A dream pursued is a goal scored.

2.   Anger if nurtured for an unreasonably long time will explode indiscriminately and uncontrollably.

3.   Success is achieving what you want without compromising what you are.

4.   Richness in mind is far greater than material possessions with shallow brains.

5.   Any time, every time is ideal time for education – no holds barred.

Makanyise's Quotable Quotes - 1st Five

1.   Majority rule or majority vote is not always correct and until we listen to minority views, we better not talk about democracy.

2.   Hope is a four-lettered word that pillars and anchors our aspirations to prosperity and posterity.

3.   Being oneself is what makes you yourself and not the other person – the person that you are not.

4.   Focus if stretched to its finality or limit will always yield desired and desirable results that are a sacrosanct to one’s life.

5.    A discovery of one’s life is a pursuance of one’s original plan and determination.

Appalling lack of interest in schooling, Buhera South

One gruesome observation I made with great concern while on my short stint in Buhera South Constituency during the Christmas Holidays is the appalling lack of interest in schooling, the absence of learning culture within our kids.


Reasons cited for this inertia in education varied from: 1. The Chiadzwa era, 2. Look Down South Syndrome, 3. No Absorption in Higher Learning Institutions to 4. No Absorption in Working Places after school.


Now the question I ask today is: What must the government do, the Bsc community do, the parents of these children do, what must we do as beacons and future leaders of our area in all efforts to address this pathetic and rather unfortunate situation that we find our young sisters and brothers in?

Buckets of sweat

In a laggard mood,
With the back aching,
The head echoing,
The hands sprouting,
I do my work.

I work all day long,
With piles of letters to deliver,
To their respective
And corrective persons,
Yes, I do my work.

I know the paddle,
As the fish knows the waters
And the handle bars,
Just a belt to a trousers,
Yes, to complete my routine
As my job description entails.

I work for the Zimpost,
I work for my survival,
In pools and swarms,
I stick to my work,
A ‘Mr. Postman’, though,
My wife calls me a husband
And my children,
A father!

The eleventh hour

Grooving and searching,
The gold of their life,
Shoving and pushing,
To the rescue of their life.

A bee-hive of activity,
In the last minute of the activity,
Choosing and discarding,
In a mist of indecision.

A mushrooming of churches,
A welter of confusion,
Baring many potentials,
To the well of salvation.

One criticising the other,
The other,
A wolf in a sheep’s clothes,
Or is it the former in a sheep’s clothes?

Many still remain undecided,
And yet the time that remains:
A time bomb in a world petrol!
-Pending explosion at the eleventh hour.

Better be found in a net,
Whose fisherman may spare a crab,
Than being seen in a web,
Whose spider will devour to a stub.

A cloud of fear

The maze in my eyes,
The mist that wells up in my eyes,
Is it the dawn of a new millennium?
Or the outburst of my zealous ambitions?

The day that chameleon to none,
But my hopes are none,
-A sheer trepidation of my future,
Cracking the walls of my destiny.

I shiver and quaver,
A mere hither and tither,
To the destination unknown,
But the ancient times known.

A mere thought to the future,
A gross gobble to my intestines,
An unstable torso boggles,
In the world of my fear.

Am I my own enemy,
To the woes and boos of my own tribulations?
Or the biltong to the infernal,
Of Boferi who died in antiquity!

A cracking heart that is pending mending,
A cloud of fear that is bestowing upon,
That hangs and hovers above my head,
Game of chances, I am down and out!

A dreamless slumber in a world of hope,
A nightmare of luxury oblivioned
And I stand akimbo thoughtless,
Or seat head resting on hand, brainless.

The African Renaissance

The wind of change sweeping across Africa marks the beginning of a new era, the rebirth of Africa, the African Renaissance. Italy became the first state to taste the change of times in the 14^th century and the renaissance spread across Europe between the 14^th and 16^th centuries.

The general feeling among Africans is one of transforming or changing autocratic-rule to democratic-rule, iron-fisted rule to liberal-rule, to quench the need for a people-oriented government that is meant to cater for all. A government of, for and by the people is the call by all in the 21^st generation era and the eruptions of the uprisings in Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia speak volumes of the desire of the modern generation to upstage cannibalistic, animalistic old regimes which thrive on silencing the voice of the people using brutal and brutish forces against innocent and unarmed civilians.

The rebirth of Africa, the African Renaissance, could not have come at a better time than 2011, in the 21^st Century, whose desire is to restore the rule of law, respect human rights, safeguard the safety and security of its people, liberalize and democratize the economy, among other reforms.

It is out of these needs that any forces that live in the past, in the dark past, will be caught napping and will try to subvert the will of the people to no avail. The will of the people, the people’s revolution is unstoppable and it will not stop until all regimes are either changed or removed.

It will not stop until all autocrats, despots are usurped. It will not stop when Arab dictators are toppled, but the winds of change will sweep down Africa to Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. The African Renaissance will reshape, remap, refine, redefine Africa until it conforms to the dictates of civility and nothing; nobody will stop the rebirth, the dawn of a new age – The African Renaissance.

  

My words to you

Words to ponder,

Words that I leave with you,

Words that have a future

Are words that I have for you.

As I leave the country for South Africa,

I should not forget my leaf,

That which blossoms my stem,

I should not forget my rose,

That which flowers my heart

I should not forget my root

That which propels my engine to posterity

No! I should leave her with words.

Words I must leave,

Words even of advice,

Even words of admonition,

That no any man is better than your love,

That no other man does it better than your apple

And that no other male should whimper in your heaven,

Than the man you chose for life

Better still than the man you call Benard.

Depressed

A tremor of apprehension,
-Of my position to date,
Ramshackles my insides,
In a world depressed.

Ghastly I action,
My efforts into effects,
But, aghastly,
-Not with laxity,
But with sinews taut,
I staved off,
The line to a future oiled,
And my body sizzled,
In a pot derision.

It is heart-rending,
-Mind-boggling!
To my heart serrated,
And my mind jagged,
Of my wishes blocked,
In the world doomed,
Of its stores shattered
And my posture besieged,
By soldiers bellicose,
For a war beleaguer
And now I feel sinking,
In a world of depression.
 

If you don't speak

If you don’t speak
Who will speak,
For the sick
For the aged
For the children?

If I don’t speak
Who will speak,
For the voiceless
For the abused
For the raped?

If they don’t speak
Who will speak,
For the jailed
For the tortured
For the murdered?

If we don’t speak
Who will speak,
For the blind
For the dumb
For the lame?