Marondera East MP ready to serve

MARONDERA- Vimbayi Mutokonyi, the Marondera East Member of the National House of
Assembly is ready to hit the ground running to bring tangible development to the
constituency, Mashonaland East province and the province at large.
Mutokonyi ensured that the seat remains in the hands of the ruling Zanu PF party after
beating Kizito Zhuwarara (Citizens Coalition for Change) and Thomas Tasirenhamo (DUZ) in
the harmonized elections held last month.

He takes over from Jeremiah Chiwetu, a former senior police officer who won the 2021 by-
election which was necessitated by the death of former legislator Patrick Chidhakwa.
Following his swearing-in alongside fellow legislators throughout the country, Mutokonyi
expressed his desire to work hard for the upliftment of the people’s lives in his constituency
in line with Vision 2030.
“Our recent swearing-in as Members of Parliament for various constituencies marked the
commencement of Government business officially and constitutionally. One of my key
constitutional mandates is to give a hand in the crafting of laws that affect Marondera East
and the country at large. Parliamentary committees play an oversight role and oversee how
plans are being implemented by the Government.
“There is also the aspect of representing the people of Marondera East in as far as rural
development is concerned. We are moving with the mantra of leaving no place and no one
behind towards achieving Vision 30 which entails the making of Zimbabwe an empowered
upper-middle-income economy by the year 2030. Achieving Vision 2030 needs a holistic
approach and this means that every progressive citizen in the constituency should be
working towards that. It is for the people and should be by the people and I am ready to be
leading the way.
“As such, it will be my role to bring development to the constituency and this means all
infrastructure, be it roads, bridges, dams, dip-tanks and the like should be in a good state or
functioning well. We are happy that we have dams and other water bodies in the
constituency. I will make sure that we receive the necessary support to get irrigation
equipment to utilise the precious resource. That will ensure that we become more and more
self-food-sufficient as a constituency,” Mutokonyi said.
Agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and most people in the rural
constituencies depend on the sector to sustain their livelihoods.
Mutokonyi said he will play his part to help farmers timeously lay their hands on agriculture
inputs this farming season.
He said: “Just like in other constituencies in rural areas, the majority of people depend on
agriculture to sustain and uplift their livelihoods. I will do my best to make sure that people in
the rural areas get their farming inputs on time. Distribution of the inputs should be done
before the onset of the rainy season so that the farmers can adequately prepare on time.
“We should start to address our economy at household level because we cannot talk of a
sustainable national economy without first sustaining the household economy. That is how
we can achieve Vision 2030 as a nation.”
The irrigation infrastructure at Pondolosa, the Marondera East legislator added, should be
rehabilitate so that farmers and other members of the community can be in a position to
develop from it, while at the same time boosting the constituency’s and the country’s
agriculture sector.
He said: “In economics, the three factors of agricultural production are land, machinery and
the people. We have the Pondolosa Irrigation Scheme which is lying idle as its equipment
was vandalized several years ago. The scheme has 200 hectares of arable land and the

system used to function very well before it was vandalised. We will push hard to make sure
that the necessary infrastructure required to make the scheme work again is put in place.
“Revitalising such schemes and other projects will see more men and women, including the
youths, being empowered. It will all begin with creating an enabling environment for them to
venture to venture into horticulture, tobacco farming and growing other cereals for
commercial purposes.”
Apart from the scheme, Mutokonyi said he will initiate an exercise to resuscitate dip tanks
that are nolonger functioning very well in the constituency.
“Dip tanks are key infrastructure when we talk of rural development. Livestock should be
looked after very well as they are a symbol of wealth and can be also be kept as a form of
business. We want Marondera East to have enough, functional dip tanks and I will embark
on a programme to resuscitate those that are lying idle. We will also ensure that key
chemicals are availed at all intervals at the dip tanks,” he stated.
Mutokonyi also revealed that he will push for the opening of Advanced Level studies at St
Ludger Secondary School, starting with the construction of a classroom block enrolling arts
subjects’ students.
In the long run, such a high school should be able to feed into the Marondera University of
Agricultural Science and Technology (MUAST) which is headquartered in Marondera East.