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Tendai Rupapa-Senior Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS are grateful for First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s work which has vastly and visibly changed society and enhanced ordinary people’s contribution to the economy, Deputy Minister of Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Barbara Rwodzi has said.

She made remarks in a wide-ranging interview on an international television network with TV BRICS’ Bricsterview, in Moscow, Russia, where she was representing the First Lady at the 24th International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development.

TV BRICS signed a memorandum of understanding with the Angel of Hope Foundation last year to air her philanthropic works.

The interview touched on several issues including Dr Mnangagwa’s life transforming initiatives, the role of women in modern society, the country’s national dress and Environment issues.

The mother of the nation has been leading from the front to ensure vulnerable communities have access to quality education and basic health care service provision.

She is also spearheading the preservation of culture and empowerment of marginalised communities particularly women and girls among other initiatives.

The deputy minister also gave a brief overview of Amai Mnangagwa’s unique community based initiatives including how she is promoting gastronomy tourism through countrywide traditional Cookout competitions, the educative nhanga/gota/ixhiba, First Lady’s drug survivors sports tournament and family fun day and wellness programme.

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa assists a boy to wear a new school uniform she sew for underprivileged children.

Clad in the country’s national fabric, a brainchild of Dr Mnangagwa, the deputy minister’s designed outfit caught the eye of the BRICS correspondent.

Deputy Minister Rwodzi said through the First Lady’s well-packed and educative programmes, she was doing a lot in promoting culture, gastronomy tourism and ensuring that most traditional things that were fast being forgotten were brought back to the people.

The conference which she attended, the Deputy Minister said, showed that world leaders were appreciating the role women played in the development of the global economy.

“My impression is that the world leaders, after a long time, have realised that women have a huge contribution to the economic and social development of countries across the world and Russia has taken a step ahead of that to bring together women from various countries from various continents to talk about how best the social and economic development can be increased for different countries and I am happy that our First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa was invited to be part of the conference and I am representing her here,” she said.

Deputy Minister Rwodzi said she envisaged cooperation between Russia’s university-Higher School of Education (HSE) University and Zimbabwe’s universities, especially Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) which was working closely with the First Lady in her empowerment drive.

She also gave insights of the kind of education the First Lady was promoting for women entrepreneurs through the partnership between her Angel of Hope Foundation and ZOU.

“I see potential cooperation between the HSE and one of our universities in the country, particularly the university that our First Lady is working with to ensure that the knowledge for women in business and knowledge for women in entrepreneurship is increased.

“The contribution in the economies is more of entrepreneurship but most of the women don’t have skills or knowledge on how to run businesses. 

“So our First Lady started a programme that inculcates women entrepreneurs to have knowledge, just basic knowledge that comes from one of our universities called Zimbabwe Open University where women are attaining certificates for short courses, diplomas and also even degrees to run mostly their businesses. There are other spectrums of society, but what she is focusing on is more on business. So I see a partnership being created between Zimbabwe and Russia’s HSE University, there is huge potential,” she said.

The Deputy Minister said women had a lot of potential which needed to be fully exploited for the development of the world economy and economies of various countries.

“The role of a woman in our modern society is quite strong though it hasn’t been tapped into that much. The role of women in our society is very key and our First Lady is working flat out to ensure women realise their full potential. Women uphold families. We also uphold companies, we also uphold even our communities, churches in our communities.” 

“As such our contribution as women to the modern society is very strong and I think our tenacity, the push that we have, the strength that we have, even when things are down, when chips are down, when things are tough is a good contribution to the modern society and we are part of the modern society that has to be recognised. 

“Our hard work in various areas and even in industries cannot be overemphasised. So how can the world go without women? Women are very key and a key aspect in the modern society,” she said. 

Africa, Deputy minister Rwodzi said, had a huge role to play in the world now and in the nearest future.

“Africa has a huge contribution to the globe. Africa has the biggest young generation. The biggest young generation of the world, hence the largest human capital of the new world will come from Africa.

“Africa has the biggest virgin land which is vested with natural minerals which constitutes the sub soil, which means the mining of this world, Africa has it at a bigger scale. 

“Africa also has the largest virgin land for agriculture, which means more land for agriculture is found in Africa in this modern world and Africa has the most important strength which may not be noticed but we have it in Africa, which is peace. Africa is peaceful. 

“For the economy to be driven well you need to have peace. Most of our countries are very peaceful and if there is any instability in Africa, its influenced from other continents and not from Africa itself, so there is peace. There is cohesion and togetherness in Africa which is a huge advantage that we contribute to the new world.”

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa interacts with schoolchildren after handing them new uniforms she personally sew for the underprivileged children.

Asked what programmes of the First Lady would be suitable for the world to see through the channel, Deputy Minister Rwodzi gave a whole catalogue of the First Lady’s work.

“We are very grateful as Zimbabweans with the work that our First Lady is doing across the country, that is vastly and visibly changing our society, particularly the younger generation that is growing up and also changing the way the people are resettling in the country in the new dispensation whereby our culture itself had been long forgotten and the First Lady is bringing all this back to the people. When we talk about our culture it goes back to the food that we have got to be eating that she is reminding Zimbabwean community to say let’s go back to our culture. 

“Together with that, she is also promoting gastronomy tourism. She has a programme that is called Amai’s traditional cookout competition which she does throughout the country for the past three years. 

“It has grown bigger and is growing bigger whereby other countries in the region have admired the programme and they are coming in May to Zimbabwe to be participants and part of this programme called the cookout competition which brings us back to our culture.

“Which brings us back to tourism gastronomy for our country. She has another programme that runs with the young people as well, teenagers to stop them from using drugs and focus on education. That has helped a lot as young people the world over are indulging in the use of drugs and other chemicals like alcohol and losing focus. Our First Lady has those programmes that we think if brought into BRICS TV it will spread across the world and will change the world itself,” she said.

The Deputy Minister shed light on some of the First Lady’s programmes.

“She has a programme in terms of our culture whereby children are taught about how to run their families when they grow up, which makes the society stable.

“It has been there for so many years and had been forgotten over the years. Now she is bringing it back across the country and it has an impact that we see and these programmes can be inculcated into the collaboration with BRICS TV and it can have an impact in other countries and even in Russia,” she said.

Speaking on similarities between Russia and Zimbabwe, she said the two countries have had good relations since the days of the liberation struggle when Zimbabwe sought to liberate itself from the colonialists. 

“Russia has always been an all-weather friend whereby all the other countries in the West would be colonising Africa, Zimbabwe included, but Russia would always not accept that,” she said.

Deputy Minister Rwodzi highlighted Dr Mnangagwa’s drive towards tree planting for the benefit of those in farming who need energy to cure their crop. 

“It’s good to be in tobacco farming and production, but its good to be replacing every tree. Its good to have energy from the trees so that we have firewood. People are using solar energy and other sources, but if you cut a tree for firewood you need to replace it. And we have seen that it has done wonders in our country. 

“The season of 2022-2023 17 million to 18 million trees have been planted in one season through the First Lady’s hard work. It has grown from the other three years by 48 percent because the communities have embraced what she has taught them. Tree planting helps prevent climate change. She is doing that because she knows that it affects climate change,” she said.

The First Lady, Deputy Minister Rwodzi said, was also bringing children together through her elementary club teaching them life lessons.

“She has also been driving the agriculture programme that our President Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has introduced in our country called Pfumvudza. It’s a climate smart agriculture where people dig holes to avoid climate change disasters from affecting the crops,” she said.

The First Lady has taken Pfumvudza to the women countrywide.

A special message to Zimbabwean students studying in Russia from the First Lady was conveyed by deputy minister Rwodzi.

She encouraged Zimbabweans studying in Russia, courtesy of her AOH’s scholarships to treasure the opportunity.

“All the First Lady wants is for them to know and to remember where they come from, to remember their culture, to stay away from drugs, to be focused more than ever to their education because without education what are you going to be as a person? It’s something to treasure, it’s something very important,” she said.

The Deputy Minister said the First Lady was a disciplinarian who wanted highly disciplined people.

The deputy Minister was resplendent in the country’s national dress for the interview and gave a glowing explanation of what it means.

“Let me say the national dress of Zimbabwe is the First Lady’s initiative. She sat down to craft what should be our national dress. It has a bird which is an emblem for our national flag. It’s an emblem for a Zimbabwean identity and she has put it on the dress. She chose different colours, she chose different designs that have to talk to our culture. This talks about our great Zimbabwe. It’s about our culture. It’s one of our biggest monuments in the country,” she said.