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Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) last Friday handed over a classroom block to mark the establishment of a new secondary school in Shurugwi where pupils were walking for more than 15km to the nearest school.

The new school, Batanai Secondary, is being built for free by artisans from the ZNA while Tongogara Rural District Council and the community are providing material.

Speaking during the handover ceremony of the new classroom block, which will accommodate Forms 1 and 2, Commander 5 Brigade, Brigadier-General Simo Maseko, said the the school was the first of its kind to be built from scratch for the community by the ZNA.

He said the new block was built in a record four months.

“Today it’s history in the making, as the army we are happy that this is my first school that we are building for the community from scratch. We have been involved in the community undertaking many projects but we have been either refurbishing structures or adding more structures at some already existing buildings but here we are building a school from scratch,” he said. Brig-Gen Maseko said the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) was a people’ s force which was determined to work in the communities to better the people’s lives.

“We are a people’s army, so we work with the people. This is why we have been engaged so much in the community projects. The Air Force of Zimbabwe recently commissioned a state-of-the-art clinic in Mberengwa’s Negove area, the ZNA commissioned another in Gokwe and today we are commissioning a classroom block for a new school. This is what a people’s army does,” he said. He said the ZNA will build all the required classroom blocks for as long as the RDC and community provided the resources and building material.

“As the army, we stand ready to construct the school to its completion for as long as there are the resources. This will be our own piece of history, so we are determined to work with this community until we complete this exciting project,” he said. Tongogara Rural District Council chief executive Mr Brian Rufasha commended the ZNA for the good job.