Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Staff Reporter – A ZANU PF Midlands Senator has bemoaned the lack of growth in Gokwe North despite the area having vast mineral deposits, tourist attractions and thousands of locals involved in cotton farming.
The legislator, Maybe Mbowa, believes these abundant resources are enough to turn around the fortunes of the district, which shares boundaries with Gokwe South and several districts in Mashonaland West province.
However, Mbowa is unhappy Gokwe North has remained underdeveloped and saddled with malaria which kills scores of villagers in the area every year.
“In Gokwe North, we have Sengwa where there are coal deposits. We have Gandavaroyi Falls which can be a good scenic area of development. We have Nyaurungwe and Chirisa game parks,” she told NewZimbabwe.com in a recent interview.
“All these areas have a potential of developing Gokwe. Gokwe has a lot of scenic areas and minerals. Gokwe North is practically sitting on top of gold. It’s a place which is endowed with vast mineral resources that can bring meaningful development to the area.
“Gokwe is the country’s hub of cotton farming. Therefore, there is need to have ginneries and value addition of cotton at Nembudziya,” she said.
Nembudziya is the administrative centre for Gokwe North. Gokwe North and South account for 50% of the cotton crop grown in Zimbabwe.
Sengwa power station, also known as Gokwe North power station or the RioZim Project, is a proposed 2,800-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station near the Sengwa coal field in Gokwe North.
In May 2021, RioZim reported that the efforts to secure financing to commence Phase One of the project were “significantly hampered by the uncertainties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
However, in June 2021, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a multinational Chinese bank, notified Go Clean ICBC, a campaign coalition of 32 environmental groups, that it would no longer financing for the Sengwa project.
Energy is already seeking alternative financiers.
However, Mbowa said Gokwe North remained underdeveloped with farmers showing little success for their hard work.
“Gokwe North is lagging behind. We don’t have enough water, we need more boreholes, we need more dams, we need our roads to be rehabilitated, some places are not accessible by road.
“For instance, Chireya and Kabuyuni constituencies are not accessible at all when it rains. It’s very dangerous when roads are inaccessible. It means agriculture is affected, it even means businesses are affected. We have many challenges in Gokwe North which need to be addressed.”
Recently, a gold rush in Tongogara area in the district saw thousands of people descending to illegally extract the precious metal.
