By Farayi Mungoshi

IT is not every day you walk on the streets of Chitungwiza and find a bunch of 10 to 12-year-olds huddled together reading a newspaper.
If anything, at most they are busy playing street soccer, picking fights among themselves or devising a plan on how to bunk school the next day.
But this was not the case in Mazvimbakupa Road, Zengeza Two, just a week ago. A bunch of children actually set their paper-ball aside and took time off, taking turns to read from a newspaper.
They giggled and laughed at one another when one of them failed to read a word, and they also corrected one another.
In a society where the reading culture is depreciating daily as economic challenges rise, this came as a surprise.
We have newspapers floating everywhere but rarely do you see children excited over them or huddled in groups reading them.
So what was different and special about this particular paper that they would stop playing soccer to read it?
I was tempted to dig deeper, that is when one, Sibongile Musarurwa, a concerned resident who stays in the area, presented me with a copy of the newspaper the children were reading.
That was when I first came across Chitungwiza’s own community paper, Chitowner, an affiliate of The Courier.
“I guess the kids could relate with the paper through familiar places featuring in it, ranging from places they have seen, streets they have walked on and names of people they actually know. That alone should have encouraged them to actually sit down and read the paper,” Sibongile, a mother of two explained.
‘Miracles and Wonders at Zengeza 4 Shrine’, ‘2011 ghost stalks Chitown’ and ‘Inside Mambo Munhumutapa’s shrine’ are some of the headlines in the Chitowner’s April issue.
Chitowner is a local Chitungwiza newspaper that comes out once a month and has been running for about a year now.
Currently, just 10 000 complimentary copies are being printed and distributed for free across the town and elsewhere where there is need, for example like at the just ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
The paper shares stories that affect those staying in Chitungwiza and raises awareness on issues residents normally have no access to or do not know how to address.
When I caught up with the founder and columnist at Chitowner, Gilbert Munetsi (a journalist, groomed by Zimpapers with over 25 years experience in the field, and who also wrote for Marondera’s Chaminuka News, High Density Mirror and The Zimbawean Farmer Magazine, among others) in Zengeza Two, he agreed to share with me how the idea to start Chitungwiza’s own community newspaper came about.
He said that it all started after the observation and realisation that almost every other town had/has its own community paper, giving examples of other community papers like the Mashonaland Telegraph and Nehanda Guardian, among others. Unfortunately this could not be said of Chitungwiza.
Given the fact that Chitungwiza houses hundreds of thousands of people, it means there is news to be told as the people are their own newsmakers.
“The Chitungwiza story is best told by somebody from Chitungwiza,” he said passionately.
He continued to explain further the reason it was important for Chitungwiza to have its own paper, saying that every time you read a story about Chitungwiza, be it online or in the press, most of the time it is negative as if there are no good things coming out of Chitungwiza.
Great things have come out of Chitungwiza, like the late John ‘Mr Chitungwiza’ Chibadura, Aleck Macheso, Charles Mungoshi, a string of soccer greats like Gift Mudangwe, Alois Godzi, Edelbert Dinha, Stewart Murisa, Alois Bunjira and even Norman Mapeza who played for Seke Two High.
Even the congregations of Prophets Emmanuel Makandiwa and Walter Magaya started off from Chitungwiza.
Yet the situation in Chitungwiza remains that of a divided people who cannot come together for a greater good.
In an attempt to create transparency between the town council and the residents of Chitungwiza, Gilbert Munetsi approached the town clerk, George Makunde, with the idea to start the newspaper which is to act as a bridge between the council and residents.
“You find that residents would be saying such things like ‘kurikudyiwa mari’ when in actual fact ‘hapana mari irikudyiwa’ but because they do not have access to most of the things going on in council, they just assume that is what is happening.”
Munetsi and his team are happy about the circulation of the newspaper saying the people are receiving it well and hopefully the Chitowner will go commercial in the near future.
The unity of the people in Chitungwiza is paramount to the economic and social growth of the area.
Munetsi and his team at Chitowner do not only run the newspaper but are also involved in boxing programmes in the community.
Lately they have asked a Zengeza-based Zim dancehall music producer who goes by the name Yogo to produce a song/rhythm upon which Zim dancehall artistes from Chitungwiza can ‘ride’ and unite the people of the town.