Mirror Reporter

Gutu – Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate for Gutu Central Matthew Takaona has over the last two years supported 60 broiler chicken projects and empowered 1 200 disadvantaged women from former Gutu North and Gutu Central constituencies in the process.
Takaona who is contesting on the opposition party ticket confirmed the projects to The Mirror today.
He said the projects are his way of ploughing back to the community and to strengthen opposition politics in a country where there is a crisis of transparency and bad good governance.
“Thirty-nine of the projects were done in former Gutu North while 21 are in Gutu Central. Apart from women, school teachers and traditional leaders also benefitted from the projects.
“Corruption and bad governance thrives when opposition parties are weak and battered and therefore we need to strengthen them. In 2021, I embarked on projects not only to empower women, but also to support citizens excluded from Government social welfare programmes because of their support for opposition political parties.
“We arranged women into groups of 20 and gave them 50 day-old broiler chicks together with four bags of mash that took the chicks to six weeks. After that we secured markets and sold the chickens and surrendered the whole proceeds of US$350 earned from the 50 chicks to the groups. After that we weaned off the groups to run their own projects.
“Some groups have since increased their chickens to 200 while others have diversified into goats rearing projects,” said Takaona.
Margaret Maredza of Ward 10 in Firomumwe Gutu said her group of 20 members got 100 chicks and now they have bought goats from the proceeds. She thanked Takaona for empowering disadvantaged people in the area.
“We formed a group of 20 members and we were given 100 chicks plus 8 x 50kg bags of mash. At six weeks we sold the chickens and now we have used the proceeds to diversify into other projects like goat rearing,” said Maredza.
Enita Mukombe Mazo of Ward 35 in Gutu Central said they formed a group of 20 women and got 50 chicks. Her group has since diversified into road runners and are trying their luck on goats.
Wilson Goronga of Ward 19 in Gutu Central said their project is recent but it has set villagers focused on income generation.
Charles Makore of Ward 4 said their chicken group has grown since last year and now they have divided themselves into two groups for easier management of the project.
Apart from the chicken projects, Takaona supported youth with over 80 soccer balls throughout the region to keep them away from drugs. However, the youth games are either banned or disrupted by Gutu Police.
He also assisted several churches in the area with building material and in particular, the Roman Catholic and RCZ. He has also supported communities with cement to build flat bridges across rivers and streams. Many sick and elderly people have been sent to hospitals while the poor were supported with meal –mealie and garden seeds in lean times.