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Dr Misheck Sibanda

Freeman Razemba Senior Reporter
THE Office of the President and Cabinet’s visit to the High Performance Computing Centre at the University of Zimbabwe yesterday will see all ministries moving with urgency in implementing key programmes and enable Government to derive maximum benefits from the infrastructure, a senior Government official has said.

The Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, yesterday toured the High Performance Computing Centre accompanied by heads of ministries and other stakeholders in order to enhance the use of the super computer in Government operations.

The super computer will enable the country to make technological advances in DNA forensics, quantification of minerals, technology-based industrialisation and data analytics.

The High Performance Computer, commissioned in February 2015, has the capacity to analyse massive amounts of data at phenomenal speed.

Speaking during the tour, Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr Ray Ndhlukula said implementation of the project started in March 2014 following a visit to China by a delegation led by Dr Sibanda.

He said the expectation was that after this visit, Government departments would come back and immediately put together a roadmap on how to start using the High Performance Computer facility.

“In an effort to improve High Performance Computer use by Government Departments, the Office of the President and Cabinet organised a delegation of officials from different ministries to attend a 21-day seminar on Cloud Computing and Big Data Management in the People’s Republic of China as a way of stimulating HPC adoption in public sector domain,” he said.

Dr Ndhlukula said Government departments were supposed to be some of the major users of High Performance Computer which is currently only being used by the Meteorological Services Department.

Said Dr Sibanda: “There is a lower uptake or lower usage of the High Performance Computer from ministries. We are aware that there are projects that are underway as mentioned. Projects which are supposed to be integrated to the High Performance Computer, the National Data Centre and the Drone Technology.”

He said there were youths that had returned from the Diaspora who were ready to utilise the High Performance Computer Centre and the Drone Technology in mineral exploration, among other aspects.

The full utilisation of the HPC platform has numerous benefits that can further propel the country into technological advanced and science-based operations, enhancing the country’s ability to tackle crime and diseases among a host of other things. Once fully operational, it has the potential of being a key enabler in the implementation of Zim-Asset, the country’s economic blueprint.

Government is committed to ensuring that the High Performance Computer project is operational. Once the High Performance Computer is fully capacitated with the necessary software and licenses, it will be a major boost to the country’s efforts to implement knowledge-based solutions.