Opinion / Columnist
Arnold Payne deserves recognition
27 Aug 2014 at 11:49hrs | Views
One of Gwanda's prominent children Mr Arnold "The waterman" Payne has died.
Payne was born in Mtshabezi area of Gwanda 75 years ago and always had a big heart for his home town. In 1992 he pushed a 210 litre drum of water from Victoria Falls to Gwanda (over 500kms) and emptied the 210 litres of Zambezi water in Gwanda.
His idea was to push government to bring to reality the Matebeleland Zambezi Water project. He wanted water to be piped from the Zambezi River to Gwanda via Bulawayo to solve the perennial water and food shortages in the region.
I remember his speech before emptying the drum, he said if one man can manage to ferry the water on a wheelbarrow in a drum 500kms what can stop a willing and committed government from pumping the water the same distance.(Underline WILLING and COMMITTED.)
Since that day in 1992, Gwanda and the region have completely forgotten not only about this event but also about this great man. Today, 22 years later, Gwanda and indeed the entirety of Matebeleland still have the same water problems as there were when this gallant son of our soil took it upon himself to send across this bold message on our behalf.
Its so unfortunate that our towns and cities in Matebeleland never take time to honour their own but rush to pay huge respect to outsiders who in reality have never contributed anything meaningful to benefit the people of the region other than subjectivity. One would really wish that our City Fathers in Gwanda will dig into their files and pull out the file with pictures and speeches from that day in 1992 and take time to remember Mr Arnold Payne and give him the little recognition he deserves for his efforts.
One would propose that as soon as the Municipality wins its war with ZINWA over ownership of the town's water treatment plant, perhaps they could rename the plant the Arnold Payne Water Works in remembrance of his huge effort of 1992.
May his dear soul rest in peace while we forever remember his great water fights for Matebeleland.
Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo is an independent social and political analyst and writes in his own capacity. This piece is extracted from his personal Facebook page. He can be contacted on bekezelamaduma@yahoo.co.uk
Source - Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo
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