IN 1999, 66-year-old Mailas Muduwa started the Muduwa Development Club.
Report by Yvonne Nenguwo
It had as its aim bringing electricity to Mhonda Village in the Mayambara section of rural Seke.
Muduwa wanted to bring the community together so that they could all participate in the development of their area as well as come up with other projects to facilitate growth in Mayambara.
Muduwa is a businessman living in Mhonda Village, Mayambara. He owns a company, Super Master, which sells tyres and motor spares.
For a long time he and other villagers waited with hope that one day the electrification programme would get to their area, but this never happened.
While Muduwa at least had solar energy, the rest of the people were still using candles and paraffin for lighting and wood for cooking.
Then at one stage a group was formed for people to join so they could raise enough money to enable them to have the village connected to electricity.
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Everyone including Muduwa joined and money was raised, but the initiative fizzled out and what happened to the people’s money no one ever got to know.
The residents had almost given up on prospects of getting electricity and enjoying the attendant benefits that would make their lives better. This worried Muduwa who decided it was time someone took action.
But Muduwa did not want to bring electricity to his household only while the villagers who surrounded his homestead continued to live in darkness. It was then that he formed the Muduwa Development Club which everyone was free to join.
Initially, the club had 14 members because everyone else was reluctant to join especially after the previous scam which was still very fresh in their minds.
Undeterred, Muduwa chose to work with those that were prepared to forget about the previous failed attempt. He approached the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), but Zesa wanted a letter from a bank. Muduwa used his company as a guarantor for the project.
Super Master, therefore, wrote the letter that CBZ required. When people started to see how serious the project was, they started joining. Within a short time poles were being erected and electrification of the area started.
More than 300 people have benefited from the electrification programme. The project has extended beyond Mhonda Village to Savanhu, Kandeke and Mhundwa villages.
Tapera Chari was one of the first members of Muduwa Development Club. He admits that everyone was sceptical, but eventually the people realised that the club was not there to get money from the people, but to help them.
Chari notes that using firewood for cooking was becoming a challenge because firewood was becoming expensive and people were starting to cut down trees so the project could not have come at a better time. Nyadzisai Dura, a 35-year-old mother of five, says it was very hard coping without electricity, because when one has children there is so much that has to be done — cooking and heating bath water, among other things.
She was among the first to join because she had been waiting for someone to stand up and take the lead, so when Muduwa did she did not hesitate.
“Life is much easier and we can also maintain standards with those living in towns,” Dura said.
Her husband has even started a welding project. He could not do this previously because they had no electricity.
Almost the entire Mhonda village now has electricity. Three other neighbouring villages have also joined them and there are so many villagers demanding electricity so much that Muduwa has even applied to Zesa for increased capacity to power the villagers’ homes.
The villagers have started projects that they could not do when they did not have electricity such as welding, catering and baking. This has increased confidence and pride among the villagers, who have started building better houses with security walling and gates, making the homesteads very different from the usual set up one finds in rural areas.
Since the club started, it has been on a continuous mission to develop the area and bring people together to address problematic issues in their community.
They have since realised that it is easier and faster to deal with their own problems rather than wait for authorities to come to their aid. The electricity project has made Muduwa very popular in Mhonda village and he has shown that he is a leader who can be trusted.
The electricity project was supposed to have been complete by now. However, the problem of overloading has arisen and Muduwa has again applied to Zesa for a second transformer.
When the electricity issue has been fully resolved, Muduwa is considering building a community hall so that people can have a place to do their projects. The whole community is looking forward to this new project.
The community members fund their own projects and Muduwa and Super Master always meet whatever shortfalls arise.
