Chipinge RDC Priorities Rural Education On Devolution

By Stephen Ephraem

CHIPINGE Rural District Council (RDC) is prioritising education in its allocation of devolution funds this publication can reveal.

In the first and second phases (2019) and third phase (2020) of devolution funds distribution, Chipinge RDC used a total ZW$6 245 570.48 in education related projects in its 30 rural wards.

A total of ZW$2 589 344.77 was used to purchase furniture for primary and secondary schools. The furniture was in form of tables and chairs for both teachers and learners and the remainder of ZW$3 656 225.71 was used to construct building blocks.

In a presentation during a furniture handover ceremony that took place at RDC Headquarters on November 28 2020, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Chipinge RDC Mr Blessing Mamvosha revealed that 42 percent of the devolution funds went towards education.

Chipinge RDC received intergovernmental transfer implementation of devolution for 2019 amounting to ZW$14 872 000.

“In phase 1 and 2, the local Authority bought furniture worth ZW$660 970.40 for primary schools in all the 30 rural wards of Chipinge and phase 3 of the same program we used ZW$1 928 374.37 to buy furniture for secondary schools,” Mamvosha said.

“In 2019, we used ZW$1 058 385.13 to reconstruct a four-class room blocks at Goko and a three-class room blocks at Charuma primary schools in ward 3 which were destroyed by cyclone early last year.

Two-class room blocks at Kubatana primary school in Ward 20 were also constructed and another chunk was used to finish up construction of blocks at Mbire Primary and Samhutsa Secondary School in ward 2 rural.

Part of the devolution funds were used for road maintenance and purchase of earth moving equipment, purchase of a lorry, construction and rehabilitation of clinics and nurses’ houses, construction of a market stall and drilling of boreholes which they used (ZW$145 600.00).

The ceremony was graced by Member of Parliament for Chipinge Central and deputy minister for Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Development Hon Raymond Machingura who was the guest of honour.

Also Chipinge District Schools Inspector, Richard Gabaza, District Development Coordinator, William Mashava and Council Chairperson Patience Mlambo were part of the proceeding of the hand over ceremony.