Mvurwi courts investors …eyes municipal status by 2025

MVURWI Town Commission says it has been holding investors’ meetings in an effort to lure as much business to the town so that they can qualify for the municipal status by 2025.

Addressing Journalists on the sidelines of an investment conference, Mvurwi Town Commission chairman Vincent Murengwa said they hope to attract as many investors as possible to the town in line with their 2025 vision.

“Our vision is to attain a municipality status by 2025. We are trying to hold as many investor promotions in the form of conferences coupled with other initiatives so that we can lure more investors since this is one of the bases for being given the status.

“We have more land here and water that we are guarding jealously but which we are willing to give to investors. The town boasts of five water bodies and an educated people, thanks to the schools around the area although we do not yet have a university,” he said.

Mvurwi was given a town status in February 2009 and was effectively separated from Mazowe Rural District council in 2011.

Mvurwi is mainly an agro-based town with more farmers growing tobacco which earned it the title “golden leaf town”.

Some of the country’s leading banks such as the Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe and the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed blue-chip company Delta Corporations has a beverages collection Depot, Farm and City and even clothes concern Power Sales have already registered their presence in the town.

Meanwhile, Mvurwi Town Council has been applauded by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) as being one of the few local authorities in the country that have been able to manage their waste effectively despite the well-documented challenges.

Unlike other well resourced local authorities in the country, Mvurwi only has three tractor drawn dumpers that service the whole town which has an estimated population of 10 492 people.

To make it possible, the innovative town council constructed about 17 communal bins across the sections of the town’s high density areas which serve as garbage collection sites, together with about five make-shift skip-bins and 10 steel bins donated by CBZ which are dotted within the central business district and other strategic areas as market places.

Murengwa said most of their efforts have been made possible by the various initiatives they have taken which include engaging residents on a regular basis which has seen some elderly women-vendors volunteering to clean the market area on Fridays and also watching out for litter-bugs.

The town chairman also revealed that council now has landfill designs in place but lack of funding is hampering progress as they are currently unable to conduct the required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).