Ndolwane villagers blast government

PLUMTREE - Villagers in Ndolwane, one of the most remote areas in Matabeleland, have blasted the government for what they termed "deliberate" neglect of their area.

Ndolwane lies in the Bulilima West Constituency, on the outskirts of the Zimbabwe-Botswana border town of Plumtree. About 34 years after independence, development remains out of reach for the villagers, who struggle for nearly every basic service.

The road network remains one of the worst in the country while boreholes, bridges, schools, radio and television reception and dip tanks remain out of reach.

"We lag behind in terms of development. We have been neglected by the government since 1980," said Simon Ndebele, a spokesman for the villagers.

"We have not enjoyed the so-called fruits of independence for all these years, yet we also contributed a lot during the struggle for independence, hoping that afterwards, our people would live a prosperous life. All those hopes have been betrayed. Independence has only brought us misery, poverty and neglect by those ruling over us."

Ndebele also accused the politicians and those connected to them of bleeding the area dry of natural resources.

"Ndolwane is rich with fertile lands, wild fruits, mopane worms and wild life, but all these are being looted. Elephants are being shot for ivory, but we get nothing in return," lamented the villager.

"There has been no effort to develop our roads, education and transport. There are no doctors at Lady Barry Hospital, which also has no electricity. Our schools are below average, with the nearest boarding school, Tegwane, being about 97 kilometres away. We cannot stand this marginalisation anymore.

"Our children sometimes spend days without going to school because rivers would be flooding, as there are no bridges. A number of villagers have also died during the summer rains because they cannot be rushed to hospital across the flooding rivers."