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Honourable Johnson Madhuku, the Member of the House of Assembly for Bikita East Constituency has said his leadership style is anchored on development, not rumour-mongering.
The sentiments come hard on the heels of a major collaboration among the country’s law enforcement agency – the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Chikuku Community Development Foundation Trust and the general public that ended the menace of cattle rustling that had ravaged the Bikita District, particularly the Bikita East Constituency.
“My name was dropped into the cattle rustling saga. That was definitely engineered by my detractors. My modus operandi is that I don’t respond to rumours or grapevine. A popular journalist from Chikuku inquired about my involvement in the racket and I promised him not to rest until the culprits were brought to book. True to my promise, I joined other forces until the criminals were arrested, leading to the recovery of more than 200 cattle. My answer to my detractors is by bringing development initiatives to the constituency,” Honourable Madhuku said.
The legislator paid tribute to the Chikuku Community Development Foundation Trust for spearheading developmental projects in the area.
“As the legislator of Bikita East constituency, it gives me great pleasure to have within my constituency people with a focus on development like the Chikuku Community Development Foundation Trust. I am particularly impressed by the organisation’s Chikuku Rural Hospital programme where Professor Jacob Mufunda leads the initiative to source medicines from Chikuku natives and provide medical consultation and treatment to the public.
“A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Working with the office of the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Masvingo, Honourable Ezra Chadzamira, we approached the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and requested them to have Chikuku Business Centre – the trading hub for my constituency (that I am sure will soon receive a growth point status) electrified. I applaud strides by the business community at Chikuku Business Centre who had gathered resources to have shops electrified. We came in and said, let’s expand the electrification programme. We are going to source a bigger transformer and put a 4-line electricity power line that accommodates more people and allows projects like welding, carpentry and so forth,” Honourable Madhuku said.
He also revealed plans to have a mortuary at Chikuku Rural Hospital since it is the biggest health facility in the constituency. Mr Donald Mujiri, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Child Care was not available to comment by the time of going to print.
Spiked Online Media crew was in Chikuku and witnessed that the electric lines were installed. The media crew spoke to Mr Zivanai Nhongo, a local businessman who expressed joy at the progress made towards electrifying the area.
“As the business community, we applaud the progress made towards electrifying the business centre by fellow owners of business enterprises. The fact that those who had purchased the transformer were requesting US$500 for others to join the electrification programme was noble but kind of excluded others. We welcome the kind gesture by Honourable Madhuku to expand the electrification programme that will include not only shop owners but the community and small-to-medium enterprises,” Mr Nhongo said.
Projects Coordinator of the Chikuku Community Development Foundation Trust, Mr Gift Marimbire initiated and spearheaded tree planting and reforestation as one of the viable projects that benefit the whole society and allow participation by all age groups.
The trust has partnered with the Forestry Commission and some members have since been given trees to plant under the project.
“We realised that this project is well aligned with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through our brainstorming sessions, we realised that we do not have adequate knowledge of tree planting. This is what prompted us to approach the Forestry Commission,” said Engineer Busai Sithole, the Secretary-General of the Chikuku Community Development Foundation Trust.
