Bulawayo city council used to be one of the best run councils in the country and the region. This was becoz in 1980 ZAPU lost the national elections and deployed its best brains at the local level where they had won.#Asakhe
ZAPU had a gvt in waiting. So people who were supposed to be ministers, directors, Perm sec, etc became councilors and technocrats at a local level. They set a very high standard of running a local authority
But in recent years we started electing stone-throwers as councilors and the results are there for everyone to see.
The city's vision is to have a smart city by 2024 but how will we achieve that if we don't have "smart" leadership
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Chief Munhuwepayi Mangwende who was Biggie Matiza's uncle a strong ZAPU activist and the one who went with Matiza to Zambia was not declared a National hero when he died .#Asakhe
There was a popular song in this area that went like, "Nkomo hatina zvikoro, Nkomo tinoda zvikoro".
In 1961 Munhuwepayi was deposed as Chief Mangwende for involvement in nationalist politics.He was later He was later detained at Gonakudzingwa .
So are we saying everyone who crossed into Zambia is a war vet?
Nitram properties was set up by ex Zpra combatants. About 15 000 combatants contributed ZW$50 each raising a total of ZW$750 000. There was also cash that was left from the war.
The original idea was to fund ex-combatants who had been demobilized and it was feared they won't be able to find jobs. Then it was agreed the combatants could work in ZPRA owned companies.
I have read a lot of bios the late ZPRA Commander Stanley Gagisa Doko Nleya and there is little that is said about him after 1980. Any special reason why? #Asakhe
Talking to Gagisa in 2018. he said " We used to think that ZPRA military training was the toughest guerilla training South of the Sahara until we went to Lebanon. Gagisa was attached to to Palestine Liberation Organisation 1974-75.
He was stationed South of Beirut at a PLO camp called Jalub ,10 kilometres from Hebron . He was with Ananias Gwenzi(General Valerio Sibanda). Elias Ndou, Alexander Assaf Katema and Joel Dambudzo.
In his paper titled " Black Workers from Zimbabwe in South Africa " J.Van H.Coetzer (1980) says a tradition of working seeking in South Africa had built up since Pre- World War 1 days.#Asakhe
He says the largest and the only real problem from SA point of view is the Matebeleland Contigent comprising mainly the kalanga from Bulima Mangwe ( Plumtree),Tjolotjo and Matopo(Kezi)."Spending a period in Johhanesburg is a habit so firmly entrenched among the kalanga men..
..He says #Johhanesburg is their Mecca also known as Egoli.
A 2016 World Bank policy research working paper looked at the financial viability of electricity sectors in 39 sub-Saharan African countries. #Asakhe
It found that in 2014, South Africa’s power utility had the largest workforce out of the 39 countries – at 41,787. It also had the largest number of customers: just over 5.4 million.
Eskom was therefore 66% overstaffed. The only countries with higher than optimum staff levels were Zimbabwe (67%) and Zambia (71%).
Bulawayo power station the thread:The station has it's origins dating back to 1897. The first current being switched on , on 3rd November 1897 and full service introduced in 1898 with 100 customers connected. #Asakhe
Byo was the 5th center in Sourthern Africa to have public electricity after Kimberly, Johhanesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town
The tender to generate electricity for Bulawayo was given to Napier, Weir and Clark of the Electric Light Company on 4th Feb 1895 and during the next 2yr equipment was brought up by ox - Wagon. On 17th August 1897 the 3 ceded the rights to Willoughby's Consolidated company