Chegutu Municipality Institutional Profile

“The Centres of Excellence programme has positively impacted on the Chegutu community. The council was given a budget of US$1 million for a heavy utility service plant and equipment that has seen a drastic change of lives in Chegutu. This success is attributed to Gender Links, which took council through the stages to becoming a centre of excellence. Council’s association with Gender Links, has capacitated management and councillors to bridge the gender gaps in its planning and governance.”

As you drive into Chegutu from Harare, towards the Town House you pass through the robot Chegutu streets have become a spectacular event for travellers and residents with traffic control lights blending well with the highway street lights. Chegutu’s strength is its community participation. During the evidence verification process on Thursday 21 February 2013, the town chamber was packed by various beneficiaries of the community projects run by council. There was strong evidence of civil society involvement in the governance matters of Chegutu Municipality.

Mrs. Mungofa, the Head of one school, testified that the land was given to Catholic sisters for free and the school provided services to the less privileged groups, some of whom would get at least one meal per day at the school. She hailed the council for the successful implementation of the MDGs and the SDC protocol on gender and development.

Mr. Bwanausi, the President of the Chegutu Residents Trust applauded council for its efforts that have changed the livelihoods of residents of Chegutu. He appologised for the misunderstanding that disrupted the tour of projects, and testified the allocation of land to housing cooperatives, schools and University.

The Gender Focal Person, Melania Mandeya portrayed her zeal to touch base with the grass roots. The Town Clerk, Mr. Alex Mandigo, highly commeded her on the amount of energy she gives to gender related matters in council. He alluded to the fact that she turned him into the first gender focal person, and understood gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting and gender impact assessment to the extent that it is now the norm in the Chegutu council. Chegutu prides itself on inculcating gender values in their team as evidenced by the drive that the GFP has. She has managed to be a shining example as she has co-facilitated some modules with GL during a joint COE meeting between her council and the Kadoma City Council late in 2012. This was necessitated by the experience she got at TOT that GL held with its GFPs and GCs in September 2012.

Mr Alex Mandigo the Town Clerk said, “the Centre of Excellence has positively impacted on the Chegutu community. The council was given a budget of US$1 million for a heavy utility service plant and equipment that has seen a drastic change of lives in Chegutu.” He linked the success to Gender Links, which took council through the stages to becoming a centre of excellence. He said council’s association with Gender Links, has capacitated management and councillors to bridge the gender gaps in its planning and governance. Evidence is the million dollar grant that was given on the bases of good corporate governance which include community participation.

However, the Town Clerk said that council was still working on the issue of gender disaggregated data, and that there were youths on the ground gathering data on a gender baseline survey to establish the property ownership, health education and status by gender and financial challenges faced by women, men and child headed house holds. He alluded to the fact that this was the brain child of Melania Mandeya the Director of Housing, Health and Community Services who is the Gender Focal Person who has been trained, tried and tested by Gender Links. He ended by requesting the CEO of Gender Linksn Colleen, to hand over a Certificate of appreciation to Melania in recognition of the work she has been doing in council to spear head gender development and awareness.

The Chegutu council has a passion for institutional memory and succession planning, as evidenced by the mixed ages among the beneficiaries who testified the good works done by council. Takunda Chesa; who is the founder of the Voice of Children Care, a community based organisation working with orphans in the town said, “Council is my role model. As they introduced me to Gender Links initiatives, I had the opportunity to meet youths like myself.”

In ward 7, Clr Ticharwa mobilised the community to clear an illegal dumpsite, and to create such a nutritious garden that both women and children in his ward have benefited.

When interviewed by Jeremish Nyamvura of Media, the Mayor of Chegutu said Council has given, women have been allocated small plots of land to grow ground cover products such as legumes, beans etc. Beneficiaries earn cash from surplus, but at the same time have food security. GBV is reduced, as many areas become free from being a hive of muggers. The project has been hailed by the Ministry of Local Government which is now encouraging other local authorities to replicate this sustainable project.

The GFP reiterated that one challenge faced was the incapacity of beneficiaries to remain consistent in the farming projects. She said this could be overcome through capacity building.