The Sunday Mail
Ranga Mataire
Group Political Editor
FORTY-THREE years after independence, the rural-urban voter dichotomy is still a critical election ingredient in Zimbabwe, which political parties can ignore at their own peril.
This dichotomy has its genesis in the liberation struggle, where much of the rural space became a battleground of armed forces against Rhodesian soldiers.
Ironically, while many nationalists were products of urban settlements, their tentacles were much widespread in rural communities, where much of the mobilisation of the masses took place.
The rural folks bore much of the brunt of the liberation war. Many of the young people who left to join liberation forces in neighbouring countries — Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana — came from these rural communities.
Fast-forward to 2023, a lot has indeed changed in the demographics of the urban and rural population.
Even the rural landscape outlook has changed, with a lot of families moving onto resettlement farms.
However, this movement has not fundamentally changed the demographic pattern that existed before independence.
According to the 2022 Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) National Population and Housing Census, 61,4 percent of Zimbabweans reside in rural areas while 38,6 percent live in urban areas.
This is a critical ingredient for political strategists, whose messages must be tailor-made to meet the expectations of specific voters in specific locations.
Although ZANU PF has made fundamental inroads in traditional opposition strongholds in urban areas, the party has proven, in successive elections, that it enjoys the support of the majority Zimbabweans, who reside in rural areas. But this rural voter affinity to ZANU PF is not a coincidence or an oddity of nature.
It has its genesis in the struggle for independence, in which ZIPRA and ZANLA forces enjoyed massive goodwill and support from the rural populace.
Indeed, the liberation war would not have been efficiently executed had it not been for the support of the Zimbabwean masses, who provided sanctuary, food, intelligence and material support to freedom fighters.
The historical bond of ZANU PF and the rural populace has been made stronger in the post-liberation era due to various policy interventions that have been implemented in rural areas to improve people’s livelihoods.
One of the most enduring policy interventions implemented by ZANU PF was the land reform programme that resulted in more than 300 000 households being empowerment through ownership of land.
Land resettlement was divided into A1 for small-scale farmers and A2 for large commercial farmers.
The wheat surplus recorded last season, as well as this year’s record tobacco deliveries, testify to a thriving agriculture sector that has seen people’s lives being transformed.
All this has come to fruition due to the support from the Government and private financial institutions.
Financial institutions that were previously reluctant to fund agriculture have recently come on board with contract funding, and the results have been phenomenal.
Construction of dams, rehabilitation of irrigation facilities, the agriculture mechanisation programme and the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme have all contributed in making agriculture one of the most beautiful developmental stories to come out of post-independence Zimbabwe.
But that is not all.
One of the perennial issues that, for years, hindered effective rural development was the poor state of roads. Realising the need for quick movement of people, goods and services within and beyond rural communities, the Government embarked on a massive reconstruction and rehabilitation of major road networks.
The Government declared the country’s road network a state of disaster, and has since embarked on a national road reconstruction blitz. The programme has seen many of the country’s roads being upgraded or rehabilitated. Reconstruction works are being conducted mostly using domestic resources and are being undertaken by local contractors.
This has created a lot of employment for the rural populace, especially those located along highways. Ask any ordinary folk, and they are quick to physically show you something the Government has done in the past five years.
Provision of water for domestic use and irrigation purposes is a key priority in rural areas and this has resulted in many dams being completed. In 2021, the Government announced that it had set aside $10 billion for the development of 10 major dam projects as part of long-term plans to support small-holder agricultural irrigation, boost food security and agricultural production and to harness water for industrial and domestic use in major towns, cities and growth points.
For rural folks, dam construction is a key driver of various economic activities and augurs well in climate-proofing and reducing heavy reliance on rain-fed farming.
Among the dams that have been completed or are almost complete is Lake Gwayi-Shangani, which is in Hwange district, Matabeleland North, at the confluence of Gwayi/Shangani rivers. Another is Semwa Dam in Mt Darwin, across Ruya River, and the projected use is irrigation, hydropower generation and water supply to Rushinga and Chimhanda.
According to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), the dame is 95 percent complete.
Others in the same province are Silverstroom Dam in Centenary, Bindura Dam in Bindura district and Dande Dam in Guruve.
More dams completed so far are Vungu in Zibagwe, Midlands; Ziminya in Nkayi district, Matabeleland North province; and Tuli-Manyange in Gwanda district, Matabeleland South.
Just a few days ago, President Mnangagwa commissioned Chivhu Dam in the Chikomba district of Mashonaland East province.
It has a capacity of 26 million cubic metres and is projected to supply water to Chivhu town and surrounding rural areas.
There is no record in recent memory in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, where so much infrastructural projects have been initiated and completed in such record time like what has happened in Zimbabwe. Apart from dams, over 700 villages across the country have benefitted from boreholes drilled by ZINWA, under the Presidential Borehole Drilling Programme.
Under the programme, ZINWA is set to drill and equip a borehole for each of the country’s 35 000 villages by 2025.
Each village is set to have a nutrition garden with a wide range of fruit trees.
The Government is also currently drilling boreholes for schools, while each ward will have two additional boreholes for youth horticultural projects. The scheme was launched by President Mnangagwa in December 2022 at Sekusile in Jinjika village, Mangwe district, Matabeleland province. All in all, the programme is benefitting over 1,8 million households as the Second Republic accelerates efforts to alleviate poverty among rural communities, in line with the National Development Strategy 1. The scheme has created employment for women and youths, thereby improving livelihoods as outlined in the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, whose national thrust is to see Zimbabwe achieve a US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025.
In all earnest, it is an uphill task for the opposition to disentangle the solid bond that ZANU PF, as the governing party, has with rural communities.
