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Wellington Dengu Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) will continue to train artisans in special trades as part of continued support to civil communities in peace time, a senior army officer has said.

In an interview with The Herald on Friday during the graduation of 60 Combat Engineering troops at Pomona Barracks in Harare, Colonel Aaron Edwards said the Corps of Engineers will continue to recruit soldiers from all ZNA units to undergo various engineering courses to ensure that the force has enough manpower to meet the demand for engineers.

“As ZNA Engineers Corps, we are one of the most important organs which require skilled manpower to react in case the nation is hit by natural disasters, for example, the recent Cyclone Idai. So during the cyclone in Chimanimani we deployed engineers to solve challenges at hand in the form of creating escape routes to enable the people to be on safe ground away from the floods.

“Secondly, our engineers had to establish supply routes by building temporary bridges and constructing roads to facilitate the movement of vehicles to supply food and movement of people,” said Col Edwards.

Guest of honour Col Winnet Murota challenged the troops to discharge their duties in a manner that will benefit the nation at large.

“Let me take this opportunity to remind you that you will be required to render advice and support to Commanders on combat engineering matters.

“You should continue to perfect your skills to carry out tasks with minimum supervision as well as maintain standards.”

The overall best student of the course was Private Mavlone Siziba of 13 Reserve Force Battalion, the second best student was Corporal Angeline Mutasa of 1 Engineers Support Regiment while the third best student was Private Dennis Bango of 1 Presidential Guard.