Poverty Amidst Plenty: Matabeleland’s Untold Story

Despite abundant natural resources, Matabeleland trails behind in terms of tangible development.

BY MBONISI GUMBO | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | MAR 5, 2021

Despite being endowed with abundant natural resources, including gold, methane gas, and timber amongst others, the region of Matabeleland trails the rest of the country in terms of tangible local development, according to verifiable data in our possession. Are the region's resources a curse? Mbonisi Gumbo dives deep into Matabeleland’s development conundrum.

MATABELELAND (The Citizen Bulletin) — The region of Matabeleland is arguably the most affluent natural resource block in the country, boasting some of the well sought after but vastly untapped minerals by major multinational firms.

From the World's seventh wonder, the mighty Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, coal deposits, untapped methane gas and timber plantations in Lupane, Matopos National Park in the southern tip, and home to Beitbridge border post—the busiest inland port in the region.

Naturally, one would expect the region to be miles ahead of other parts of the country regarding its inhabitants' development and well-being.

Not at all!

The disconnect between abundant natural resources and development levels has, for decades, sparked heated debates in many platforms from scholarly to informal social spaces.

Matabeleland provinces' fortunes continue to dwindle drastically as the poverty gap widens between regions across the country.

Are the region's resources a curse?

Official government and independent records show that the region of Matabeleland has the slowest population growth rate in the country.

ZimStats at its last census projected Bulawayo's population at slightly above 650 000, which was a small increase from the 2002 national headcount. However, the Bulawayo City Council disputes the figure and claims it has a population of 1,5 million people. The local authority argues that population figures are crucial in resource allocation by the central government.

Does this magnify a more significant regional problem, or there is a malicious intent to handicap the region through misrepresenting numbers? Referencing the 2012 population census, ZimStats claims that employed people in Matabeleland South constitute 89 percent while 11 percent comprises the unemployed.  In Bulawayo, the employed shall consist of 73 percent while the unemployed constitute 27,4 percent.

Curiously, the statistical data provided by ZimStats is not disaggregated and turns a blind eye to the existence of the informal economy sector and its contribution to employment statistics. Various reports paint the region as poverty struck, and it's not getting any better. A staggering 41 percent of people in Matabeleland North are said to be reeling in extreme poverty, justifying the assertion that the region is the country's poverty capital.

In 2017, poverty prevalence stood at 66 percent in the Nkayi district. Lupane stood at 50 percent. Lupane sits on untapped lucrative coal-bed methane gas deposits, and locals have witnessed a string of ribbon-cutting ceremonies ostensible to kick start a life-changing project worth millions of dollars. Estimates show that the Lupane-Lubimbi area has more than 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas. The project is still a pipe dream.

Binga tops the list of open defecation prevalence at the household level at 74,3 percent. Beitbridge border post, the busiest inland port of entry and a key SADC transit point, is poorly developed. On average, immigration records show that 200 000 travellers, 300 000 buses, 100 000 light vehicles and 40 000 commercial trucks use the border post monthly, raking in millions of foreign currency, although COVID-19 induced lockdown has reduced the scale.

Critics believe that the resources are not benefiting locals as they are exploited and looted by a few politically connected individuals outside the region. They contend that countless investment projects proposed by locals and international investors are deliberately stalled by people in central government, probably to continue to have leverage on the resources for their benefit. They also argue that four decades into self-rule, the region still has mud hut schools whose net effect feeds directly into learners' perennial poor academic performances.

ALSO READ: Centralised Education System: A Recipe for Poor Grades in Matabeleland

In the same basket of setbacks, Matabeleland has the least number of schools than other provinces in Zimbabwe without even weighing how resourced they are. Observers say there is neither appetite nor will to improve the education sector in Matabeleland. Remarks by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema which portray school heads and sanctions as the dark forces behind low pass rates and the ailing academic system in Matabeleland are not helping matters.

Shockingly his utterance ignores issues to do with the centralised education system, inadequate resourcing and financing of educational institutions within the region, and shortage of skilled and qualified teachers. From 2001 to 2017, 270 new schools were built in Mashonaland West, bringing 751, signifying a 56,13 percent increase. In that same period, Matabeleland South only managed 72 primary schools bringing the total to 512. Matabeleland North has 616 established schools that include over a hundred schools without proper buildings and furniture.

All the three Matabeleland provinces have perennial water challenges, with Bulawayo being the hardest hit. Once the industrial hub of the region, the city experienced its worst water-shedding regime in 2020 to the extent that the average water supplies were once every week in most suburbs. Proposed water projects geared at easing water woes such as the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project are moving at a snail's pace.

In an inflation hit economy, the annual national budget allocation for the project hovers around ZW$400 million. Matabeleland North currently produces 40 percent of the country's electricity, but schools and health facilities have no power. There is no compelling reason why Matabeleland should lag in terms of development. We considered that the government's preferred centralised administration system prone to corruption, nepotism, and regionalism is the primary source of Matabeleland's economic and social ills.

There is an urgent need for a holistic action to push for the equitable distribution of national resources, particularly at regional level. It is baffling why government bureaucrats keep emphasizing the need for locals to leverage natural resources to create jobs and revenue yet some of them preside over the plunder of local resources—in Matabeleland—for their own enrichment. Unless the central government enacts laws that specifically state that a certain percentage of every government's income tax remains in every province, the Matabeleland region will continue to languish in poverty yet it is endowed with natural resources worth billions of dollars.

Mbonisi Gumbo is a human rights activist based in Bulawayo. He writes in his personal capacity and is contactable via email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.