Science thrust begins to transform lives The President reads the plaque he had unveiled during the commissioning of the acetylene gas plant yesterday.

Political Editor

PROJECTS that have been initiated and commissioned by President Mnangagwa in the past few years have transformed the lives of ordinary people through employment creation and increasing Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) of provinces regardless of whether they are rural or urban.

Yesterday, the President commissioned an acetylene plant in Feruka, Mutare, a product of the country’s institutions of higher learning that is set to provide the much-needed gas for industrial use, in addition to the oxygen and nitrogen plants that he also commissioned last year.

Reacting to the commissioning of the plant and the challenge that was made by the President, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, who is also a Senator for Manicaland Province, Monica Mutsvangwa, said benefits accruing from projects that had been spearheaded by President Mnangagwa were  transforming lives.

“The people of Manicaland are certainly going to benefit. Just a week ago, our President and visionary leader was in Manicaland opening the Allied Timber Sawmill in Cashel Valley. That is what is producing solutions to the problems of this province, that will bring the GDP of Manicaland up there. 

“This is a milestone achievement, we are happy to see this home-grown engineering, we are seeing our Zimbabwean brains, Zimbabwean resources being used, we are very proud. As a province we are very grateful to the Second Republic for its visionary leadership which is finding us all getting to this stage,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Verify Engineering chief executive officer Engineer Pedzisai Tapfumanei said the project is being driven by locally trained engineers and is designed to cut costs and contribute to the country’s economic revival.

“We were previously contributing nitrogen and oxygen, now we are a one-stop shop in terms of medical and industrial gas production. 

“To the nation, it means that infrastructure development which needs oxygen, nitrogen, and acetylene for metal fabrication and construction of any manufacturing plant, can now be done with ease because all the products are now being locally produced and at affordable prices,” he said.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, Cde Joshua Sacco, said the plant will add impetus to the industrialisation and mordenisation currently taking shape across the country.

“This is going towards import substitution, we don’t have to import gas from South Africa or elsewhere as we were doing in the past. It is also innovation showing that we have the skills and capacity to do this ourselves as a nation of Zimbabwe. We are now self-sufficient in terms of oxygen, nitrogen, and acetylene, reindustrialising, opening up for business to make this country an upper middle-class economy by 2030,” said Cde Sacco.

Spurred by support from Government, Verify Engineering has so far broadened its scope and is exploring several ventures across the country.

The company’s board chairperson, Engineer Edgar Munyarari Kamusoko, was upbeat about the country’s growth potential through support from central Government. “We are currently working on a number of projects as Verify Engineering, being an arm under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation and Technology Development.”

“ We are transforming the innovations that are done by students into real deliverables, we are also domesticating external technologies and using them to solve our problems.” 

Higher Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira, said Zimbabwe, through science and innovations, is moving mountains. 

“The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science. In the Second Republic, we have made friends with science and Zimbabwe cannot be counted out. We are in and the future belongs to us as well. Those who think we are joking should think again. We are determined, and we are loyal to the national cause.” 

In her welcome remarks, Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Manicaland Province, Nokuthula Matsikenyeri said Manicaland Province has started to reap huge rewards from the Second Republic policies.

“We will always be grateful because the President has done so much in supporting us. We are naturally delighted with the addition of the gas plant. Verify Engineering has brought relief to local industries. It has created employment for locals and is also supporting local industries. There is growth in the inter-industry trade.”

A Mutare resident, Mr Morgan Saruchera, said although he understands less of science, he is certain that when he is ever in need of oxygen he will find it at the local hospital.

“We have heard the experts speak and I am sure we all know that we survive on oxygen. However, there is medical oxygen and it is coming from Verify Engineering. We are really pleased to have such a company,” he said.

A vendor along the Feruka road, Mrs Ratidzai Rupwanya, said she has witnessed heightened activity since last year.

“There are a lot of vehicles now, big tanks, this can only mean that our industries are reviving. We hope the President will continue opening more industries so that our sons and daughters can get jobs,” she said.

President Mnangagwa is pursuing development that leaves no one and no place behind and across the country, industries are being set up even in remote areas so that everyone takes part in the country’s development.

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