Shurugwi Rural Areas, also known as Shurugwi District, is a rural area around Shurugwi, Zimbabwe, mainly to the east, beginning 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the town centre. The area between the town and the rural areas was mainly occupied by white commercial farmers. It is thought that at one time, these farms were owned by three families who were all related. The total area of these farms is approximately 60 km x 40 km similar to an area that was occupied by more than 4,000 African families. Most of the black families are subsistence farmers. Maize is generally grown by the majority.
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Primary schools
There are a number of primary schools in Shurugwi Rural. Most of them, like Vungwi Primary School, were built as far back as 1905. The list includes: Banga,Bokai, Chekenyu, Chikato, Dombwe, Hanke, Makonde (St Monica),Makotore, Matamba, Mavedzenge (St Peter), Mhangami (St Pius), Ndaora (St Paul), Nhema (St Francis), Pakame,Rusike Shamba, Tumba, Vungwi,Gundura, Banga, Wida,Sibolise and Zvishazha.
Secondary schools
There are a number of secondary schools in Shurugwi Rural, notably Sibolise Secondary School,Mupangai Secondary School, Chivakanenyanga Secondary School, Batanai Secondary School, Rusungunuko Secondary School, Dombotombo Secondary School, Chironde-Kwagweya Secondary School, and Bokai Secondary School, among others. The academic results from year to year are generally poor and below par which is generally blamed on the teachers.
High schools
There are only three boarding schools in Shurugwi which are all in rural areas:
Hanke Adventist High School, a Seventh-day Adventist school which traditionally offered up to 0-Levels and was called Hanke Adventist Secondary School. It was recently upgraded to offer all levels through A-Levels and changed its name to reflect that. As it is a mission school, both the primary school and the high school are on the same campus which can cause confusion between them.
Tongogara High School, only 10 km from Hanke, is a government-run high school. The boarding facilities are generally reserved for A-Levels students while the Form 1s to Form 4s are general day-schoolers (although a limited number of lower grade students have been admitted into boarding since 1990). Tongogara was founded as a secondary school in the early 1980s and A-Level was only introduced in 1989. It is the biggest high school in Shurugwi by student population.
Pakame Mission, about 40 km to the southwest, is a Methodist-run mission. Like Hanke, it traditionally offered classes up to form 4 (O-Levels), but was recently upgraded to offer up to A-Levels. Pakame is considered the best of the three in terms of O-Level pass rate.Rusununguko is now a high school offering A levels as well.
Rusununguko High School which is 4 km was of late upgraded to offer A levels, this is the only non boarding high school in Shurugwi. This schools caters for talented students from disadvantaged families mainly from its neighboring secondary schools such as Mupangai, Bokai. The pass rate from Rusununguko is not bad, most students walk +/- 15 km to and from school. Most students who come through these walls normally fails to progress with their education because of university fees challenges
Hospitals
Zvamavande Rural Hospital is the only hospital in Shurugwi Rural. It is located 2 km southeast of Cha Cha Cha Township, 2 km southwest of Vungwi Primary School and 7 km northeast of Rusununguko Secondary School.
Clinics
There are a number of rural clinics in Shurugwi Rural. Notable clinics include Hanke Clinic, on the same campus as Hanke Mission; Saint Francis Clinic, near the residence of Chief Nhema and facilitated by his politician son, Francis Nhema, about 40 km northeast of Cha Cha Cha Township and 20 km northeast of Hanke Adventist Secondary School; and Tongogara Clinic, situated at Tongogara Shopping Centre. There is also Gundura clinic, about 5 km from Pakame Mission.There is also Rusike clinic about 15 km south of Cha Cha Cha.
Zvamavande Hospital is the referral centre for all other clinics in the region which often transfers patients to Shurugwi Hospital in Shurugwi.
People still walk long distances to health centres. Serious cases are sometimes transported up to 10 km by ox-drawn carts. This happens especially to those that are from areas that are not easily accessed by cars such as resettlement areas commonly known as "minda murefu" (literally, "long fields").
HIV and AIDS
Like other rural areas, Shurugwi Rural Areas has suffered the wrath of HIV and AIDS, partly because of unawareness and poverty. Sex is considered the only form of entertainment in rural areas, given that many families do not have televisions and there are no cinemas to watch movies. Due to an unexpected number of deaths between the middle 1990s and the early 2000s, people have been frightened by the consequences of AIDS and the HIV rate in the area has recently declined.
Resettlement areas
There has been considerable resettlement, since 80% of the area around Shurugwi was owned by commercial farmers (generally Caucasians) who lost their farms because of the domestic land policy of President Mugabe. The people who claimed these farms (mostly black families without land) have struggled to survive due to lack of knowledge regarding good agricultural methods. Most of the beneficiaries are not originally from Shurugwi.
Politics
Home to the late freedom fighter and Commander in Chief of Zanla forces, Josiah Magama Tongogara, other notable politicians include late Midland governor and resident minister Herbert S.M Mahlaba, Francis Nhema, the Minister of Tourism in the Mugabe cabinet and an MP of Shurugwi, first Shurugwi MP at independence and now Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Dr Lucia Matibenga, and Emmerson Mnangagwa, by virtue of marriage to Tongogara's sister and coming from Chirumhanzu, and Dr Frank Mbengo.
Frank Mbengo is an academic from Mbengo Village, situated 1 km southwest of Vungwi Primary School, 1 km northwest of Zvamabande Hospital, and 1 km from Cha Cha Cha Township. He ran several times as an independent but was not elected. Some reports say he was offered a cabinet post by Mugabe but declined. Another notable personnel include Dr Anderson Chimusoro who once served as the Midlands Province provincial medical officer.
Due to patronage, MPs have since independence come from the north (15 km north of Cha Cha Cha Township), an area under the guardianship of Chief Nhema, as opposed to the south which is under Chief Ndanga. David Ruzive, a former MP who has been heavily criticized, was also from Nhema. This has caused more development in the Nhema area than in the Ndanga Area.
Cha Cha Cha Township is the best-located township in Shurugwi Rural because it is where major roads meet. Unfortunately it has been neglected and the growth point was placed at Tongogara Township.