Govt committed to elevate marginalised communities

TENDAI BHEBE 

The Government is committed to elevate marginalised communities across the country, the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, July Moyo has said.

He spoke at the installation of Christopher Dube as the first substantive Chief Goledema for the San community last week.

“We can no longer have our people as excluded minorities in this country. [We can’t have] this discrimination,” Moyo said.

He added: “(They should) have access to social services such as education, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, housing and so on.”

Moyo said Chief Goledema was going to face challenges in putting the community in order.

“This new Chief [Goledema] has many challenges. [But] with the support from you who live in this area and six other chiefs, we can solve those problems. The first challenge is to delineate the boundaries which the new chief will cover,” Moyo said.

The San live in the borderline areas of Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North and Bulilima in Matabeleland South in a relatively closed society that over the years made it increasingly difficult for outsiders to interact with them.

They lived in abject poverty and did not want to associate with strangers, largely owing to different socialisation systems as they were mainly hunter-gatherers who moved from place to place.

The San language is also slowly dying due to their integration into IsiNdebele and TjiKalanga-speaking communities.

Chief Goledema, Christopher Dube the first chief of the San community said together with the community members they revive the San language.

“Our San language has been documented and we have kept it. So it was an ideal way to do. We will have it upon us to make sure we teach our children our language. I think through the books we have written it will help our children to learn it faster,” he said.

More than 30 recently installed chiefs across the country received Isuzu double cab vehicles as part of their packages from the government to ensure chiefs are mobile and execute their duties accordingly.