MATABELELAND North Provincial Affairs minister Cain Mathema says his vision is to see Lupane being developed into a modern city with infrastructure meeting the status of the State university it hosts.
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In an interview with Southern Eye at his Mhlahlandlela government office, Mathema said he wanted to see the exploitation of methane gas in the district turning Lupane into an industrial zone.
“We want to turn Lupane into a modern university town. We want Lupane State University to be one of the best institutions for development of agriculture and tourism,” said Mathema. “The infrastructure at the university is very beautiful, but we can’t have it at a rural business centre, that’s why we need a city. Plans are there for modern sewage works for both liquid and solid waste.”
Mathema said Lupane would soon receive no less than 5 000 students and as much as Bubi Dam supplied the district with water, there might be need to tap some more from the Gwayi-Shangani Dam after completion.
“There is need for a government hospital and a hotel as well as accommodation facilities for students,” he said.
“There must be clear demarcations for low, medium and high-density suburbs.
“Lupane has a lot of gas and can be a centre of distribution regionally. Russia sells gas all over Europe and we want to establish gas tanks that will supply gas nationally and regionally.”
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Mathema said he had asked the Zimbabwe National Water Authority to embark on a project to provide piped water to at least one village per district every year to boost farming activities.
“In 1996 to 1997 when I was Tsholotsho MP, we set up a pipe from Gwayi River to Manqe area to provide piped metered water partly because the children there have browning teeth because of the levels of salt in the water,” he said.
“We need to resuscitate that project. The same was done in Mbamba and Sipepa area a long time ago and this time we will complete the pipe coming to Manqe and another to Dlamini.”
Mathema said he was also keen on revisiting the Tshongwe Dam project that was pegged years ago in Nkayi as well as the Lungwala Dam in Binga that would irrigate 400 hectares of land if resuscitated.
Mathema said the province was in need of a technical training college to equip locals with skills to enable them to exploit natural resources in Matabeleland North.
He said there was need to rethink methods of beef production in the province.
“In South Africa they buy eight-month old steers from Namibia and do pen fattening,” he said.
“We should go along those lines because the way we are looking after our cattle is not commercial; we need to move towards intensive cattle breeding.”
Mathema proposed that farmers be given shareholding at the Cold Storage Company to fully utilise the otherwise idle but advanced equipment at the company’s depot in Bulawayo. He said that would enable farmers to determine the price of beef and protect themselves from exploitation by cattle buyers.
The minister said there were also coal mining projects like the China-Africa Sunlight Energy that would turn the Fatima area into a town and generate 600 megawatts of power to the national grid.
He said Nkayi, Lupane and Tsholotsho had wood that could be exploited and see furniture shops opening in the respective areas.
Mathema said the province could also benefit by building lodges along the Zambezi River to Kariba to promote tourism.
He took a swipe at mining companies that reneged on pledges they made towards the Matabeleland North Community Share Ownership Trust Scheme.
