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Vusumuzi Dube, Zimpapers Elections Desk

“9 000 Cowdray Park houses used banned blair toilets”, “Cowdray Park residents cry foul over road project”, “Cowdray Park growth outpaces service delivery”, “Shunned by Zupcos and kombis: Cowdray Park cries out for better roads”.

These are just but a few headlines that have been synonymous with Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb over the years, highlighting some of the major problems faced by residents in this area, which has grown to become the largest location in not only the city but the country as a whole.

Cowdray Park suburb is divided into two parts — the pioneer development stands that are well serviced with access to electricity, water and sewer as well as the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai area, which is still to be connected to the national grid and has no sewer and water services.

According to the 2022 Population Census preliminary results, Cowdray Park (Ward 28) with 75 070 people is the second most populous urban ward in the country after Harare’s Ward 43 (Budiriro) which has 89 287 people.

The country’s latest delimitation report designated Cowdray Park as a standalone constituency, weaning it from a previous setup where it was yoked together with Luveve. Cowdray Park is the biggest suburb in Bulawayo and has over 26 000 stands including residential, commercial, industrial, and other amenities.

Cowdray Park suburb’s population is bigger than that of Gwanda Town which has 27 143 residents and Hwange Local Board (formerly Hwange Town) with 40 241 residents. The exponential growth of Cowdray Park has seen some developmental proponents even lobbying that the suburb is made a satellite town.

Despite, its notable growth, the suburb continues to lag behind in terms of service delivery, from the inaccessible roads to the use of Blair toilets by over 9 000 of the households due to the lack of water and sewer reticulation.

However, the sufferings of the people in the suburb have not gone unnoticed with the Government coming up with a number of interventions meant to uplift this previously marginalised suburb.

Last year, a new 20-bed Cowdray Park Health Centre was completed and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment as part of the Government’s efforts to improve access to health. The Cowdray Park Health Centre, the second such project after the construction and commissioning of Stoneridge Health Centre in Harare, has wards for men and women, paediatric, pre-natal, and post-natal wards, a delivery room, minor theatre, consultation rooms, environmental room, guidance, and counselling rooms, laboratory and isolation wards where patients will be treated under observation, among other facilities.

The clinic is expected to relieve pressure on Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals, which are referral hospitals for southern parts of the country. Land has also been availed for the construction of a police station, with plans also underway to set up a magistrate courts building.

Devolution funds have also been channelled towards the construction of Vulindlela Primary School to ease the burden of students travelling long distances to access education.

It therefore came as a surprise when Bulawayo City Councillors launched a tirade at Finance Minister and aspiring Cowdray Park Member of the National Assembly, Professor Mthuli Ncube for embarking on a road rehabilitation project, a move that saw residents now being able to access key amenities like emergency services.

For years some sections of the suburb were now being shunned by public transporters, even the City of Bulawayo’s garbage collection trucks who claimed these sections were inaccessible due to the state of the roads.

This is an issue which was constantly raised by the current Councillor, Kidwell Mujuru who is a member of the ruling party and  also the suburb’s previous councillors inclusive of Alderman Collet Ndhlovu who himself is a member of the opposition and was contesting to represent the Citizens Coalition for Change in the upcoming elections, although he lost to the current CCC candidate Pashor Raphael Sibanda.

Prof Ncube and his team are now also working towards having the suburb finally get rid of the decades-long problem of the use of the banned Blair toilets after they have already engaged a contractor to work, together with the local authority, towards the connection of a sewer reticulation system.

More than 9 000 out of 15 600 Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle houses in Cowdray Park have been using Blair toilets as they could not afford the US$500 connection fee to the sewer reticulation system that was being demanded by BCC.

Further, once the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline is completed, the main reservoir feeding into Bulawayo will be located in Bulawayo, this meaning that water woes being faced in the suburb could be a thing of the past as they will be the greatest beneficiary to this massive water project.

In the short term, Prof Ncube has already drilled and equipped 35 boreholes in the suburb, which have significantly eased the suburb’s water woes in a city that has continued to suffer from perennial water challenges.

The Treasury boss has also secured some electricity transformers and drilled boreholes to ease water challenges in the biggest suburb in the city. He has also pushed the smart city concept by providing free WiFi in the suburb, just like in any other modern city.

One thing certain is that in just a couple of months, Prof Ncube has pushed a lot of major development projects and is fast ensuring his promise of developing the suburb into a smart city.

Various analysts have commended the developmental projects that have been embarked on by the Finance Minister dismissing the councillors’ sentiments as mere grandstanding.

“So an aspiring candidate rehabilitated roads in a constituency and the local council has its knickers in a twist saying the candidate should have obtained permission from them. Really? Talk of a sense of self-importance. A public good has been done and all you can think of is yourself? Go home!” wrote the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana, on social media.

In an interview, Clr Mujuru said what was happening in the suburb was something they had continued to clamour about for a number of years but failed to get hence the coming of Prof Ncube could be likened to the coming of a God-sent angel out to solve all the problems being faced by the residents.

“Open any council report for the past ten years or so and you will find that in every meeting there was an issue raised regarding the underdevelopment of Cowdray Park. From the roads, sewer and even water reticulation, the suburb had become the laughing stalk in the city, as any underdevelopment joked had reference to Cowdray Park.

“Every time, during the rainy season, we would have people making money by carrying others on their backs to help them pass our inaccessible roads to the Hlalani Kuhle section. Even Zupco buses now shunned plying this route because of our roads, that is what we had become; a rural area within an urban set up,” said the councillor.

“Now that we have someone who in just a few months has got us believing that there is hope in Cowdray Park, as residents we are grateful and politics aside we needed someone who will spearhead such projects because now we are confident that more businesspeople can emulate him and invest in our suburb,” added Clr Mujuru.

The councillor noted that there was a huge potential for Cowdray Park to even grow to be a satellite town for Bulawayo and all that was needed were deliberate developmental projects like the ones that were being spearheaded by Prof Ncube.
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“In just a short space of time we have had 35 boreholes drilled and equipped, our roads have not only been rehabilitated but they are now being tarred which means key services like emergency services can now access the suburb because previously we have had cases that resulted in death as these services could not reach the people.

“Further, in the next coming few days we have a team that will start working on sewer reticulation a move that will effectively get rid of the Blair toilets which our residents are using.

“All these projects are being done by Prof Ncube even before he is elected, imagine what more is coming once he is elected into office,” said Clr Mujuru.

Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA) chairperson, Mr Winos Dube said what was happening in Cowdray Park was testament of what was possible if an individual committed to development is allowed to take the reins and represent the people.

He revealed that Cowdray Park, especially the Hlalani kuhle area, was one which had been largely neglected by the local authority in terms of service delivery and now for the first time they had someone who was coming through and pushing the much needed development.

“The fact that it took Prof Ncube, a whole Finance Minister to commit himself to pushing for the development of the suburb should show us the commitment the government has in transforming the lives of the people from suburb.

“For now, the local authority should be introspecting and realising how much they failed the residents of the suburb. This is not the time for them to criticise but they have to be standing with Prof Ncube in assisting in the development of the suburb, a suburb which they have failed and neglected over the years,” said Mr Dube.

The residents’ chairperson said as residents all they required at the moment was development which he noted had a bearing on their livelihood.

“No one in this age wants to be using a Blair toilet while claiming to own a property in an urban area at the same time no one wants to be going to communal boreholes to access water, it is unacceptable and inhumane to say the least.

“All that Cowdray Park residents have been clamouring for over the years is some form of development, something which will give them the sense that they have a property in an urban setup not just a brick and mortar property and fortunately they now have someone who has stood up and given that very development which they have been calling for,” said Mr Dube.

Former Cabinet Minister and Zanu-PF Politburo member, Professor Jonathan Moyo, has also commended Prof Ncube for finally bringing development to the suburb, noting that a victory for the Finance Minister in the upcoming harmonised elections would be a victory for everyone.

Posting on micro blogging site Twitter, Prof Moyo said the public expects that developments that Prof Ncube has ushered in Cowdray Park should spread across other parts of country.

“But because you are the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, one of the top and key portfolios in government – and you are thus everyone’s finance and economic development minister who manages everyone’s national purse – seriously consider spreading your solution-based campaign message and replicating your inspiring interventions and campaign projects beyond Cowdray Park to Bulawayo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and ind nationally,” he said.

“When you win in Cowdray Park, as I pray you will, and as the writing on the wall says so, everyone should win.”
Independent analyst and National University of Science and Technology lecturer, Mr Bhekizulu Tshuma noted that Cowdray Park had suffered for too long in terms of lacking development and that now someone was selecting to bring that development should be commended and supported.

“The issue of Cowdray Park provides an interesting scenario. Should the city council stop Prof Ncube because he didn’t seek approval from the city fathers?  In my view, the area has suffered lack of development for a very long time.

“And yes, Bulawayo councillors may have a point in claiming that they were not approached, but, I think we need to rise beyond politics and look at the net benefit of what Prof Ncube is doing for the people of Cowdray Park as a suburb. Instead of complaining in the media against Prof Ncube, the Bulawayo councillors should engage him and ensure that standards are adhered to.

This is what should happen, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” said Mr Tshuma.

As Cowdray Park enters the final road to the watershed elections that are set to be held on 23 August it is thus appropriate to end with the declaration Prof Ncube made to the residents;

“We have said we want to create a smart city and I have engaged the city council. I want some industrial land and we are going to create an industrial park,” he said.

“I was very impressed by the displays, some of you will go into that industrial park. I will also speak to some of my colleagues in Government so that it (Cowdray Park) is given a special economic zone status.”