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FROM ‘HORROR’ PASS TO HORA PASS. . . Before and after pictures of the then impassable Hora pass that was a heartache to many a villager before it was tamed courtesy of the Bindura Community Share Ownership Trust

Features Writer
WHEN her mother died in 2006, Leona Charakupa, now 40-years- old, could not make it to her mother’s funeral on time even though she had been one of the first people to be notified of the death.

Living in Kahari Village in rural Bindura only a few hundred of kilometres from her mother in Buhera, Charakupa found her mother already buried by the time she reached home, which in the local culture is frowned upon and something to be avoided at all costs.

But, Charakupa says, it was all beyond her control. The road to and from her village was impassable and bus operators plying other areas in Bindura would avoid it.

“Even though I woke up long before the crack of dawn to make the trip, I failed to make it on time. I couldn’t find transport. Bus operators would refuse to come our way saying it was impassable and dangerous,” Charakupa says.

“People would have to walk 10 kilometres to get to the nearest bus stop to get transport either to Bindura town or Harare,” confirms Tedius Mukarakate (61) of the same village, who says the precariously sloping dusty road which was gravelly, rough and uneven, with deep crater-like holes,had seen many a vehicle overturn or roll back failing to go over the steep gradient. Since the 90s until well into the new millennium the road was a nightmare for the villagers and visitors alike.

Mukarakate, himself a smallholder farmer, says in those days he used to lose most of his produce after failing to find transport to take them to the market in Harare.

“Our tomatoes and other horticultural products would rot and we would have to throw them away after months of working in the fields and losing hard-earned money for buying the inputs. It would all be such a waste year in year out. And it seems no one could help us,” Mukarakate.

But all that has changed.

The impassable Hora Pass has now been slightly flattened, levelled and surfaced. All of a sudden the flow of traffic and ease of passage has increased trade and travel opportunities for not only Kahari Village residents but also for other communities in Ward 12 Bindura rural.

Thanks to the Bindura Community Share Ownership Trust (BCSOT) which, in 2013, undertook the road improvement project at Hora Pass.

Under the Indigenisation Act which provides that companies involved in exploiting the natural resources of a community should contribute towards the development of those communities , Freda Rebecca, a gold mine in Bindura, funded through BCSOT to the tune of US$1,5 million.

The Hora Pass is just but one of the projects which the BCSOT was able to finance around Bindura. Other projects include building school classrooms, teachers’ residences, dam wall, among a host of others.

“There are many projects that come to our attention, and we prioritise based on the needs assessment we undertake as a Trust,” said Chief Musana, Joel Nyarumwe, who chairs the BCSOT.

A total of US$75 551 was spent on the Hora Pass.

Although many other communities await their turn of development of projects in their areas, those communities living around and benefiting from the Hora Pass could not be happier.

According to councillor, Alwin Ngoshi, Ward 12 has 14 villages and 1 600 households which are all beneficiaries of the Hora Pass.

‘We would like to thank President Robert Mugabe for launching the CSOTs and the BCSOT board as well as the community for their support,” Ngoshi says.

“This has really brought development to our communities. Farmers can now go to the market; relatives and visitors can come and go as they please; ambulances can ferry the sick to and fro; while lorries and trucks can bring bread and other basic foodstuffs into the area. We are truly grateful.”

The development of the Hora Pass under the CSOT programme within the context of indigenisation dovetails with the country’s economic blue print, Zim-Asset, which was launched in the last quarter of 2013. With the aim of restoring the country’s economic fortunes, Zim-Asset has a number of clusters one of which is infrastructure development, under which the Hora Pass project fell.

Surfacing the Hora Pass was a 21-day project which saw BCSOT sub-contract the local District Development Fund (DDF) which employed 20 villagers from the area to do the work. DDF supervised the work while BCSOT provided the quarry stones, cement, river sand and other needed materials, as well as provided the funds for paying for the labour, among other financial needs.