Mwenezi is a small district situated in southern

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is bisected by the

Mwenezi River Mwenezi River is a major tributary of the Limpopo River. The Mwenezi River starts up in south central Zimbabwe and flows south-east along what is known as the Mwenezi River Valley that bisects the district into two sectors. The river is found in b ...

and the A4 highway, the main thoroughfare that connects the town of

Beitbridge Beitbridge is a border town in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. The name also refers to the border post and bridge spanning the Limpopo River, which forms the political border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The border on ...

, on the border with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, to

Masvingo Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city is situated close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, th ...

Background

Mwenezi derives its name from the Mwenezi River, which provides

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been dev ...

water to the sugarcane

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s in and around the

Rutenga Business Center Rutenga, is an important village in the province of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. It is the de facto capital of Mwenezi (District). There are unverified claims that the name “Rutenga” is derived from corruption by local natives of what the ...

. Although the

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

is located along the highway, the main administrative offices are located at the Neshuro Business Center. The weather is hot and dry throughout the year, except during the summer when rain is frequent. In 2002, the population of the drought-prone district was estimated to be 126,000, up by 25,000 from 1992, the year of the drought. Mwenezi lies in natural regions four and five. The district is prone to droughts and experiences low mean annual rainfall. The majority of households in Mwenezi depend on agricultural production, like livestock rearing. The small amounts of rainfall have created a desire amongst households in Mwenezi to shift more towards livestock farming, especially cattle and goats, although the majority of households indicate that they have not been able to restock since the drought of 1992.

Education

As in other rural parts of the country, the schools in Mwenezi are government run, although some have historical links with

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Christian denominations. There is one boarding school, Lundi Secondary School (run by the Free Methodist Church). The fact that all the secondary schools (other than Lundi) were established after independence, is testimony to the marginalization of the district and the "catching up" it needs to do. Though Zimbabwe has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, in some Mwenezi communities, such as Maranda, a former designated native reserve before independence in 1980, the rate being as low as 50 percent.

Secondary and primary schools

Notable schools in Mwenezi include Lundi Secondary School, situated along the Masvingo- Beitbridge Road, Masuture secondary school situated along Masvingo-Beitbridge Road just 60 km away from Lundi Christian high school, Mabhare Secondary School, north of the Mwenezi River but close to Manyuchi Dam, Dengenya Primary School, between Mwenezi and the

Mushawe River The Mushawe River (alternative spelling Mushawi River) is a right-bank tributary of the Mwenezi River in Zimbabwe. It rises in the Nemande mountain area and flows through the Maranda area to join the Mwenezi River downstream of Manyuchi Dam, M ...

, Kuwirirana Secondary School, Guiding Star Secondary School. Masogwe Baptist Secondary that was established in 2004 by Pst Nhamo Chigohi on the Neshuro Rd, Maranda High, Hlezana Secondary, Mwenezi Government School, Budirirai Secondary School, Rufaro Secondary School, Masuture Secondary School, Makawire Primary School, Shazhaume Primary School, Pambe Primary School, Zvirikure Primary School, Sarahuro Primary School, Masongwe Primary School, Hebron High School, Neshuro Secondary School, Neshuro Primary School, Rutenga Primary School, Gegare Primary School, Matibi Primary School. However, not all villages have secondary schools. Some students, especially those from villages along the Mwenezi River, below the main wall of the

Manyuchi Dam Manyuchi Dam forms a reservoir on the Mwenezi River in southern Zimbabwe. It is located in the Mwenezi District. The building of the dam was financed by the Mwenezi Development Corporation. The dam was built to irrigate oil palm estates. Histor ...

, have to walk long distances to school, about fifteen to twenty kilometers. This state of affairs discourages students from going to school, instead opting to cross the border and go to

Economy

The district's main employers are sugarcane plantations in

Rutenga Rutenga, is an important village in the province of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. It is the de facto capital of Mwenezi (District). There are unverified claims that the name “Rutenga” is derived from corruption by local natives of what t ...

, Triangle and

Chiredzi Chiredzi is a town in Masvingo province in south-east Zimbabwe. It is located near the Runde River, which has a tributary called the ' Chiredzi'. As the administrative center for Chiredzi District, it is where both the rural and district coun ...

all connected by a railway line from

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council ...

. The cattle ranchers, before the influx of commercial farms in 2000, used to employ many people. As in most rural districts in the country, many people are also employed in the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

mainly as teachers and nurses. The people in the district had always trekked to the mines of

. However, the number of migrant workers has increased in recent times due to the economic

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

that Zimbabwe has been going through. Few young people remain in the villages across the district, preferring to take their chances in

working one menial contract job after the next. The

on the border with South Africa makes their trek easier.

Tourism

In the past, the district generated some revenue from tourism, with large numbers of tourists visiting the private game parks in the district and the nearby Manyuchi Dam.

Business centers

The district has many service and business centres of varying sizes and economic vibrancy. Among these,

Neshuro Neshuro is an administrative center for Mwenezi District in Masvingo Province, south-eastern Zimbabwe. It also acts as one of the largest business centers in the drought-prone district. It is the staging front base from which aid organizations like ...

, Sarahuru, Sengejira, Maranda and Chaoma are noteworthy. The withdrawal of government-funded grain collection and distribution facilities as part of

neoliberal Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

reforms in the 1990s and the recent (1998–2008) economic woes of the country led to the decline of these centers. However, some, like Neshuro, have continued to grow, with water and poor roads the major deterrents to investment.

Government and politics

Akin to other districts in

Masvingo Province Masvingo is a province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.485 million as of the 2012 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established as Victoria Province by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the ...

, the ZANU-PF party dominates politics. Ever since the country's independence, the constituency has been represented by a ZANU-PF party member in the parliament of Zimbabwe. Isaiah Shumba was the representative for Mwenezi, winning both the 2000 and 2005 elections on the ZANU-PF ticket.

General elections 2008

The district now sends two members to Zimbabwe's new

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gover ...

. Each of the wards in the district has an elected official who works in the rural district council. The district has been a stronghold of ZANU-PF since independence in 1980, a trend that didn't change in the 2008 elections. The district was divided into two parts, namely Mwenezi West and Mwenezi East, for the general elections of 2008. Candidates from both the

Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai The Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T) is a centre-left political party and was the main opposition party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe ahead of the 2018 elections. After the split of the original Movement for Demo ...

party and ZANU-PF competed for the two constituency seats. The winners will represent the district in the

in the parliament of Zimbabwe. Mwenezi, together with Chivi (District), will elect a member to the new

Zimbabwe Senate The Senate of Zimbabwe is the upper of the two chambers in Zimbabwe's Parliament. It existed from independence in 1980 until 1989, and was re-introduced in November 2005. The other chamber of Parliament is the National Assembly. In its cur ...

Political violence

Ever since 2000, there have been sporadic reports of violence in the district, mostly perpetrated by ZANU-PF supporters and war veterans on their perceived enemies. Isiah Shumba, the former MP for Mwenezi constituency, was arrested with twelve other ZANU-PF supporters for political violence and intimidation in the run-up to the harmonized elections of 2008. He took a violent path after he had lost in the ZANU-PF primary election. He had run for the Mwenezi East seat and had lost to Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (2,793 votes) and Cletos Muchara (214 votes). Shumba was a distant third, garnering only 48 votes.

Mwenezi East

Eight wards comprise this part of the district, which includes the land north of the

: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, and 18. Bhasikiti Kudakwashe (Zanu-PF), Murambwi Ananias (

MDC Tsvangirai MDC may refer to: Arts *Macau Design Centre, an art center in Macau *MDC (band) (Millions of Dead Cops), an American rock band *'' M.D.C. - Maschera di cera'', a 1997 Italian horror film *Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the protagonist of Miraculous: Tal ...

), and Chidyamakono Tavengwa (Independent) ran for the Mewnezi East House of Assembly seat with Bhasikiti winning with 9696 to Murambwi's 2477.

Mwenezi West

There are nine wards in the district: 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Mwenezi West comprises the area that is south of the

, including

. Masukume Pilot ( Zanu-PF) and Tedious Douglas (MDC Tsvangirai) battled for the Mwenezi West constituency. Pilot won the contest with a landslide of 12,636 to Tedeous's 1,577.

Infrastructure development

Road network

The district is serviced by a network of mostly

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

roads. Apart from the shoulder-less A1 highway, all other roads in the district are of

macadam Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the ...

ized gravel roads. During the rainy season, despite the best efforts of DDF, they get washed away. Most places are accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some of the vital bridges destroyed during

Cyclone Eline Intense Tropical Cyclone Leon–Eline was the second longest-lived cyclone in the Indian Ocean, behind Cyclone Freddy, traveling over during its 29-day track through the Indian Ocean, throughout the entire month of February. The cyclone formed ...

in 2000 have yet to be repaired. The primary mode of transport is by donkey cart, and phone lines connect most of the business centers with the outside world.

Health care

Public health care is delivered at four levels meant to function as a referral chain. The entry level includes rural health centers, rural hospitals, and urban clinics (whose services do not require an attending physician). District hospitals exist at the first referral level, provincial and general hospitals at the second referral level. The third referral level includes central and special hospitals. Most health care facilities in the district are owned and run by the government's Ministry of Health & Child Welfare, although local communities are involved in the management of some clinics. The main referral hospital is Mwenezi District Hospital at Neshuro. Previously the Neshuro clinic, it was upgraded by the Chinese to a rural hospital in the late 1980s. The Catholic-run Matibi Mission hospital to the northwest (bordering the Mberengwa District) also acts as another referral hospital. Several poly-clinics are scattered across the district offering primary health care. In recent years, as the economy of

has declined, shortage of drugs and equipment at hospitals emerged, although staffing levels by the end of 2010 had improved. Communities also rely heavily on traditional medicine. The major diseases that affect the people in the district include TB and

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

. Owing to the low rates of

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

, especially in Mwenezi West, TB remains a threat to the district as the affected usually don't finish their treatment regimes.

HIV/AIDS

The remoteness of the district from other areas has spared it from the scourge of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

/ AIDS. However, cases of the malady have been reported to be on the increase in recent years as the highly mobile youth that venture to

in search of jobs gets exposed to the virus and bring it back.

General

The area south of the Mwenezi River, beyond the Maranda communal lands, is dominated by some of the country's largest ranches. Nuanesti Ranch, reputed to be the largest freestanding ranch in the province, if not the whole country, is found in the district along the A1 highway between

and

.Satellite pictur

accessed 2008-02-28) These ranches provide basic infrastructure, from schools and clinics to roads and dip-tanks. Since the farm invasions of early 2000, peasant farmers from the communal lands of both

Matibi Matibi is a former native reserve, now known as a communal land, in Southern Zimbabwe. It is found in the northern section of Mwenezi (District), north east of Manyuchi Dam and the mighty Mwenezi River; bordered by Belingwe communals lands to the n ...

, north of the Mwenezi River, and those from the Maranda communal lands south of the river, invaded some of the arid ranches found in the district, changing the land use map.

Famous People

Paul Matavire Paul Matavire was a blind Zimbabwean musician and songwriter born in Maranda, Mwenezi District. He rose to prominence in the 1980s when he joined the Jairos Jiri Band based in Bulawayo at the Jairos Jiri Rehabilitation Centre. He was then electe ...

, the singer who sang in the

Paul Matavire and the Jairos Jiri Band Paul Matavire was a blind Zimbabwean musician and songwriter born in Maranda, Mwenezi District. He rose to prominence in the 1980s when he joined the Jairos Jiri Band based in Bulawayo at the Jairos Jiri Rehabilitation Centre. He was then electe ...

, created many songs before his untimely death in 2005.

References

{{coord, 21, 30, S, 31, 00, E, display=title, region:ZW_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki Mwenezi Districts of Masvingo Province