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Fungai Lupande Mash Central Bureau

Sometime ago, the Mupinge farming area popularly known as Impinge, lost two school children while dozens were seriously injured when they jumped from a moving vehicle, fearing abduction after being offered a lift to school.

The school was located 15km away from their homes, showing some of the challenges faced in Guruve due to shortage of schools.

But the devolution agenda operationalised by the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa, has assisted the Guruve Rural District in realising its full potential in service delivery.

Construction of a 16-roomed teacher accommodation, which can shelter four families, is now complete at the new site of Mupinge Primary School. 

A temporary school structure has also been set up at the farm compound. 

Construction of the school is expected to commence after the rainy season.

In the meantime, chrome mining at the site has stopped. 

Guruve RDC chief executive officer, Mr Tinos Marisa, said the Chinese Company that was extracting chrome ore nearby, has since stopped and land reclamation has begun.

“This area has chrome, nickel and other minerals that are yet to be explored. Mining at the school site has stopped and by the time we start construction of classroom blocks, the land would have been reclaimed,” he said. 

“Land can be reclaimed and put to good use after mining activities. Operations of the Chinese company are above board and they have started reclaiming the land.” 

Describing how bad the situation was, chairman of the school’s development committee, Mr Saidi Kaiche, said the majority of school children fail to finish their education.

He said in the past, some school children were offered transport and when the driver forgot to drop them, they jumped out of a moving vehicle thinking they were being abducted.

“We lost two children and a huge number was seriously injured. Last year in November, three school children jumped off a moving vehicle. One was seriously injured and referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital,” said Mr Kaiche. “We approached our local authority and they agreed to use devolution funds to renovate a farm shop into a temporal school.

“The community assisted with locally available building material and construction of toilets.”

The school opened this term to early childhood learning classes up to Grade Five. 

Mr Kaishe said their wish is to accommodate all primary school learners and are appealing for a suitable area for a secondary school nearby. 

“Currently, children are travelling a long distance to a secondary school in either Kondo or Nyamhondoro area,” he said. 

“Recently, we had a case of rape among one of the female learners but we failed to locate the perpetrator due to the long distance to the scene.” 

Guruve district planner, Mr Levison Kanyepa, said $2,1 million was used to construct the teachers’ accommodation.

“We are prioritising construction of schools in the district. Currently, we have 55 primary schools and 33 secondary schools but they are not enough,” he said. 

“Given our devolution allocation of $394 million, we are planning to build another teachers’ house and two classroom blocks at this site. “We constructed a semi-detached teachers’ house at Museka Primary School and one classroom block. We thank our Government for the devolution agenda which is enabling us to execute and target projects in marginalised communities.” 

Since 2002, Wira Gezi Secondary School in the Kachuta area in Guruve that was started by the late national hero Cde Border Gezi, remained a dream only to be opened last year after the Guruve RDC used devolution funds. 

Now, there is only one classroom block at this school and there is need for teachers’ accommodation. 

Mr Kanyepa said their approved budget for this year is $839 million including devolution and two new primary schools are on the cards. 

“We want to build Timuri Primary School in Ward 19 and Disi Primary School in Ward 14. We will continue upgrading existing schools and build more teachers’ houses,” he said. 

“We have plans to purchase equipment, a tipper truck and rigger to drill boreholes because water and sanitation is a challenge. We bought a tractor and bump trailer last year. 

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“Our budget will cater for the health sector. We are in the process of renovating a farm house to turn it into Makombe Clinic.”

Last year, they were allocated $194 million under devolution but they received $42 million and they used the money to set up a solar-powered borehole at the clinic and they are constructing a staff quarters for nurses. 

The clinic will be fully operational in the second quarter of this year. 

People in Ward 21 travelled for 20km to access health services in Guruve Centre.

Mr Kanyepa said they have also renovated Kachuta Clinic whose roof was blown away by wind.

Despite all these milestones, Guruve RDC has a fair share of challenges following the collapse of four bridges since the onset of the rainy season. 

The bridges are Berrispost, Nyamupfuta, Didze and Pindapinda in Mushongahande. 

Mr Kanyepa said they have made temporary measures to enable people to cross and access the business centre.