Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, with a population of over 1 million people. It is located in the Matabeleland province, which is in the south western part of Zimbabwe. The city is positioned closely to both South Africa and Botswana and traditionally is an industrial and commercial centre.
The Khumalo Constituency is composed of the Bulawayo city centre and its surrounding, predominantly lower density suburbs on the North, East and South sides. It consists of two House of Assembly Constituencies, Bulawayo Central and Bulawayo East. Khumalo Constituency is divided into a total of five of Bulawayo’s 29 wards, namely Wards 1 to 5.
The whole Khumalo Constituency stretches over 40 kms from North to South (from and including Joshua Nkomo International Airport in the north to Criterion water works in the south), and 12 kms between East and West. In all, it encompasses a region of more than 170 kms².
The Khumalo Constituency has a population of over 80000 people. These people predominantly live in the lower density suburbs surrounding the city centre. There are 10 of Zimbabwe’s top high schools, over 20 primary schools and several hospitals in the Constituency. Khumalo also boasts one of Zimbabwe’s major universities, the National University of Science and Technology.
Problems: The problems that face the Khumalo Constituency are problems facing Zimbabwe nationwide. At this time, the four key problems for the district are: food, healthcare, education and employment.
Food
The people of Zimbabwe are currently facing massive food shortages. There are two major factors contributing to this. First, the lack of productive commercial farming has led to the unavailability and rising cost in food, since it must often be imported from abroad. Second, alongside this, rising inflation has pushed the cost of food much higher than even employed people can afford.
This means that people are suffering severely from lack of food. When Senator Coltart meets with Constituents as he did recently when he met some HIV/AIDS sufferers on 14th October 2008, this was made particularly clear. One woman living in the eastern suburbs of Bulawayo weighed 75kgs in January 2008. Her weight had dropped to 49 kgs by October 2008. Others reported going for 5 days without any starch.
The lack of food has led to severe malnourishment, particularly in the case of children who are not receiving enough food to grow and develop properly.
Health
At the moment the life expectancy in Zimbabwe for women is 34 years and for men is 37 years. Of a population of 12.3 million, an estimated 1.8 million are living with HIV/AIDS. The population urgently need a properly functioning health system.
Lack of Resources
The Zimbabwean healthcare system is severely under-resourced. There are inadequate funds to pay nurses and doctors a decent salary. Government nurses reported in October 2008 that they were being paid only Zimbabwe $20 000 per month, insufficient to buy even one bus fare. Often, nurses and doctors must walk for about 1½ hrs each way to get from home to hospital, because they cannot afford any other means of transport. As a result, many nurses and doctors cannot afford to work for more than two days a week. The rest of their week must be devoted to earning money for their families by street selling and other means. This has led to a massive shortage of doctors and nurses. One Bulawayo hospital has seen staff numbers decline from approximately 400 in 2007 to 100 this year.
There are also insufficient funds in the healthcare system to pay for the drugs and treatment that patients need. A nurse from Bulawayo has reported that there is no operating theatre available in her hospital. HIV/AIDS sufferers are considered extremely lucky if they have access to ARVs. However, not only are drugs and adequate treatment scarce, but when available, most people cannot afford either treatment or medication.
Effect
The lack of resources in hospitals means that people are dying from easily preventable conditions. For example, people are dying in hospital because there are not enough fluids to treat them. People with diabetes are dying because they cannot get access to the dextro sugars that they need.
There is also a serious shortage of primary health care in Bulawayo. This means that, without early diagnosis and treatment, minor illnesses develop into life threatening ones. For example, colds have the chance to develop into pneumonia. Furthermore, the absence of early diagnosis means that conditions like high blood pressure are not treated, often leading to strokes.
The effects of the declining healthcare system are felt most keenly by HIV/AIDS sufferers. Without adequate treatment, they are particularly vulnerable to opportunistic infections such as TB. They also need to have long-term and stable access to medication such as ARVs.
Women in need of maternity care in Bulawayo’s hospitals are also suffering. Many women and children are dying during childbirth. The hospitals do not have the staff or resources to deal with abnormal births such as breach births. Nor can they cope when problems occur such as a broken placenta. If this happens during birth, it is very likely that baby and mother will bleed to death.
Not even the private sector is exempt. Bulawayo’s leading private hospital Mater Dei now only has 2 floors open and is reportedly in danger of closing. Government hospitals are all but closed with entire wards not functioning.
What needs to be done?
Support can be given to free clinics set up by churches in Bulawayo. These clinics are run voluntarily by doctors and nurses and provide free health care to people who cannot afford to pay. They obtain medication from overseas donations.
Investment in the health care system is urgently needed, both to provide personnel and drugs. Doctors and nurses must be paid more so that they can carry out their jobs full time. Incentives must be given so that trained healthcare professionals are also encouraged to return to Zimbabwe. The UN recently pledged US $500 million to Zimbabwe’s health care system. This money must be spent and accounted for wisely and carefully.
Improvements in the health care system must be coordinated with increased availability of food. People need adequate nutrition to build up natural immunity against disease, particularly if they are HIV positive.
Schools
The lack of resources and shortage of funding in the education system profoundly damages Zimbabwe’s education system. At the moment, teachers are being paid insufficient salaries. Many teachers have emigrated to become domestic workers in foreign countries where they are paid better. Others subsidise their salaries by vending sweets or fruit in their schools. These insufficient salaries mean that many teachers are not coming into school to teach on a regular basis. School children report that although they are attending school, many teachers are not present to teach them.
On top of this, many families are struggling to afford to send their children to school. They must pay for school fees, uniforms and stationary. This means that for some parents, although it is illegal for children not to attend school, they simply cannot afford to send them.
The tumult of 2008 has left the examination system seriously disrupted. Many children are taking exams in subject areas they have not studied because their teachers have been absent for almost the entire year. These breaks throughout the year mean that most of the Grade 7 examinations have been postponed.
University
Zimbabwe’s universities are in a similar state to its schools. University lecturers are currently on strike over pay. Many university academics have left the country and taken up posts abroad.
In the current situation, Zimbabwe is unable to provide its school leavers with university opportunities. This means that Zimbabwe loses many of its educated school leavers to foreign countries such as South Africa and Botswana for higher education and job opportunities.
Approximately 94% of Zimbabwe’s population currently battles against unemployment.
People who are employed often earn a salary which is too little to support themselves and their families. This especially applies to people earning Zimbabwe dollars. People are paid into their bank accounts, which means that their money is only accessible through withdrawals of Zimbabwe $ 500 000 per day. The hyper-inflationary economic environment means that by the end of the month, their salary has devalued to an insignificant amount. Also, the expense of public transport combined with low pay means that commuting long distances to work is impossible. Often a person could spend their entire month’s salary on a one-way commute.
Outside salaried employment, people are able to respond to the changing economic environment more easily. They can queue all day at the bank. Many people are making a living from hiring out their bank accounts. This means that they allow others to put money in their accounts and then queue to withdraw it, receiving a cut of the money withdrawn. Others operate as street vendors.