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Lawrence Chitumba

Mashonaland Central Bureau

Mazowe Central legislator Cde Sydney Chidamba has called on Rural District Councils to exercise due diligence when parcelling out land to developers.
This follows a row between villagers from Chiweshe ward 9, 10, 11 and 12 led by their village heads and Mazowe Rural District Council over land which the council allocated to businesspeople but was reserved for the expansion of Rosa Hospital.
Rosa Hospital was established in the 1940s and now serves more than 20 000 people in and around Mazowe District and the infrastructure can no longer withstand the large volumes of patients and needs to be expanded.
Cde Chidamba said allocation of land by council was not development oriented, but was driven by the thriving artisanal mining activities taking place in the area.
“We have other places like Damiso where they should have allocated land to developers not this area,” he said.
“A hospital is more important than those businesses and as the MP, I stand with the people’s wishes.
“The First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa came here and donated hospital equipment which means that she has a vision for the institution. As you have heard, the people from this area want to take council to court over the issue. It also means that they have a vision for the hospital.
Cde Chidamba, with the assistance from Chiweshe Development Association, is constructing a mortuary at the hospital to ease the villagers’ plight of travelling to Howard and Concession hospitals to access services.
The mortuary, which is expected to be operational by August this year is almost complete and what is left is the fitting of the refrigerator and other fittings.
Sister-in-charge at Rosa Hospital, Abeshel Mundandishe said the hospital received VIAC equipment from the First Lady, but the room for this purpose is too small and there is need for a bigger space.
She added that there is need to expand the hospital which serves nine clinics so that more pregnant women can be accommodated.
“The incernarator is too near to the hospital kitchen and infection control does not require that. The dental section can longer accommodate the big numbers that come here to be assisted.
“We also need more houses for our staff members as we hope to have a resident doctor to assist the local people,” she said.