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President Mugabe unveils the plaque to officially open the Gweru Information Centre in the company of First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe

Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
President Mugabe yesterday said he had a special connection with the Midlands Province after he spent his youthful days in the province as a teacher and later as a prisoner.

Addressing delegates soon after officially opening a state-of-the-art Information Centre in the Gweru central business district yesterday, on the sidelines of the youth interface meeting, President Mugabe said he still had bitter-sweet memories of the province.

“Gweru is my city, Gweru has never left my mind. When I say Gweru I mean the Midlands Province. I have fond memories of this city, the province where I spent years as a teacher at Driefontein, then Mambo Secondary and later as a prisoner,” said the President.

He said he remembered the province very well when he was the only teacher with a degree and that when he was transferred to Harare, the province’s then schools inspector had to plead with the authorities and then protesting after failing to win against his transfer to Highfield, Harare.

“After attaining my first degree, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English in 1952 through correspondence, I came to teach in this province and when I was transferred to Harare, the schools inspector then pleaded with the authorities achiti aah matitorera teacher wedu ega ane degree kuno,” said the President drawing laughter.

He said he later taught in Highfield, but was to come back in the Midlands Province, this time at Mambo Secondary after the Midlands schools inspector won the fight for his “most educated” teacher to come back.

“So you see Gweru is not new to me. I came here also in another form as a prisoner at Wha Wha Prison where I spent many years before I went to Lusaka and then Lancaster House in 1979,” he said.

The President said Midlands Province was the largest of all the country’s 10 provinces and implored its leaders to remain united by working as a team to give the Zanu-PF party the biggest number of votes, come elections next year.

“I know Midlands, I know the province is one of the largest of our ten provinces, but VaHungwe (Psychomotor Minister, Josaya Hungwe) who is here, would say ‘aah Masvingo’.

“Midlands is the largest so we need to be united and show this through votes. We need to be united and unity needs a kind of discipline. Discipline to work together. Do we still have it? We need to examine ourselves and correct ourselves. This is the rule,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Mugabe yesterday officially opened a state-of the art Information Centre in Gweru, an initiative which he said was part of the Presidential Interface Rallies mandate in all the provinces.

“We have been doing this in all the provinces where we have gone. Opening an Information Centre has been part of our programmes in all the provinces we have visited so far. We are now left with three provinces, Mashonaland Central, Bulawayo and Harare,” he said.

The Information Centre was in line with the global trends where every piece of information was now found on the Internet. “When we grew up, we would communicate using letters and we would wait for weeks to get that response. “But we now have Internet technology, we are in a modern world and these information centres will help in as far as research is concerned,” he said.

President Mugabe said technology has brought with it its challenges, but was necessary in the digital age. “Although it doesn’t give in-depth like the books we used, life has become faster than it was yesterday hence we need connectivity, this is our world now,” he said.

President also donated computers to various schools across the province. Schools which received computers include Leopold Takawira Primary in Mvuma, Dove Secondary in Mberengwa and Chironde Primary in Gokwe South.

Each school got 20 computers.