In recent weeks, he has suffered numerous negative reports in the media, accused of abusing the $50,000 Constituency Development Fund he received in 2010 to develop his area.
There are also reports that the MDC-T structures in his constituency are fed up with him and are moving to lure Deputy Local Government Minister, Sesil Zvidzai, a former Gweru Executive Mayor, to come back and represent them. The MP invited The Zimbabwean to tour his constituency ‘‘so that you are able to judge for yourselves whether I am effective or not, rather than depend on the views of other people with their own agendas’’.
Born in 1974, Rutsvara attended Mutero High School in Gutu before settling in Gweru. In 1996 he acquired a certificate in Business Management from ABS College in Pretoria.
He returned to Zimbabwe to work for BP and Shell as the Gweru Ranch Service Station Manager.
He was promoted to supervise the company’s marketing division before, in 2001, leaving to start his own business. By 2006 Rutsvara had amassed a fleet of 15 commuter omnibuses.
The following year, he sold the kombis and bought 12 ordinary buses that plied the Gutu, Chegutu, Beitbridge and Johannesburg routes from Gweru. In 2008, he moved into the haulage business and also began building an accommodation and conference facility, Elephant Lodge, at a cost $ 500,000.
At its inception it had just 10 rooms but has grown to 26 and is now being expanded to 36 rooms.
“When I was voted into Parliament in 2008 after beating incumbent Timothy Mkhahlera by over 4,000 votes, my major objective was poverty reduction and the development of Gweru,” said Rutsvara, who is also the MDC-T Provincial Treasurer.
A close look at the seven wards that comprise his constituency shows that he has laboured hard to achieve his goal.
“In my endeavours to create employment, I opened a shoe manufacturing cooperative which produces about 45,000 pairs a month. Ninety two less able Gweru women work there, in addition to men,” he said.
In Ward One, the MP helped build a public ablution facility at St Severino Primary School, one of the oldest schools in the area where sanitation standards had drastically gone down. He also supplied desks and chairs as pupils were sitting on the floor.
The legislator is building two community halls in Gweru for social and developmental gatherings at a cost of $273,000 each. One will have a police post within its precincts and will be available for church services and community gatherings.
The MP says he is ready to stop representing the constituency if the people so wish. “I am not 100% perfect. But those who wish to replace me should advise the country on my performance from an informed, factual point of view. There shall never be bad blood between me and any political opponent,” Rutsvara said.
Rutsvara’s achievements
– Ablutions, furniture for St Severino Primary School
– Street lights in two wards
– Generator and blankets for isolation hospital
– Computers for Sandara Primary School
– Water and power bills paid for Batanai Old People’s Home
– Furniture for Riverside and Lundi primary schools
– Two community halls
Post published in: News