I’m impressed, says President

Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Reporter

ZIMBABWE is on a positive and progressive economic trajectory as evidenced by the remarkable improvement in this year’s 116th edition of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, President Mnangagwa has said.

Speaking to journalists after a two-hour tour of exhibition stands at the Harare Exhibition Park yesterday, the President expressed satisfaction with the quality and range of products on display, noting that this year’s exhibition had surpassed previous editions.

“I was impressed with what I saw. The country is progressing. What we saw this year is much better than what we saw last year,” said President Mnangagwa, who was accompanied by Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka.

He said it was encouraging that new ideas anchored on innovation continued to be conceived at the premier agriculture exhibition showpiece.

“As a nation, we have continuously improved and have continued to bring new ideas. This is what it ought to be. I moved around several exhibition stands. Of course, there might be other stands that I could not visit, not deliberately, but because of time constraints. We hope next year we will continue to do better,” said President Mnangagwa.

During his extensive walkabout, the Head of State visited a wide array of exhibition stands spanning various sectors.

These included the Angel of Hope Foundation, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), MenBelieved, Seed Co, Geo Pomona Waste Management and the livestock section.

He also toured stands belonging to the Parliament of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation, Water Resources Development and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.

At the Parliament of Zimbabwe exhibition stand, the President was received by Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, and Senate president Cde Marble Chinomona, who briefed him on the legislative body’s engagement with the public and its role in supporting agricultural development through policy and oversight. Mines and Mining Development Minister, Dr Polite Kambamura, welcomed President Mnangagwa at the Ministry’s stand.

During the tour, President Mnangagwa interacted with exhibitors and members of the public.

At the Zinwa exhibition stand, President Mnangagwa was shown an N-Space machine, modern monitoring equipment used to monitor dam construction projects in real-time from the office.

Explaining the functions of the machine, Zinwa acting chief executive officer, Engineer Waddilove Mandiziba, told President Mnangagwa that the machine provides an on-site experience of various dams while one is sitting in the office.

“So expert engineers can inspect a dam, what is going on or a problem, from the office, seeing it in real-time with cameras that will be moving to show the areas of interest. So instead of people travelling all the way, it saves us a lot of time and a lot of cost. It is also used to inspect underwater,” said Eng Mandiziba.

“Our divers can only dive up to about 30 to 40 metres here. Beyond that, we are not able to inspect. So traditionally, we would wait for the dam levels to go down. But now, with this technology, we are able to see what is happening underwater. For example, with the cracking on Mazowe Dam, we can inspect it from two instruments that are linked to this system in real-time.”

The machine was installed by Makomo Engineering that is also constructing Kunzvi Dam.

Eng Mandiziba linked up with engineers at Kunzvi Dam as a demonstration to President Mnangagwa of how a problem could be detected and solved in real time.

He said the machine dovetailed well with the Second Republic’s thrust to modernise and industrialise through innovation in line with Vision 2030 and as envisaged by the National Development Strategy 2.

On arrival at the Exhibition Park, the President was welcomed by Vice Presidents, Dr Constantino Chiwenga and Dr Kembo Mohadi, Cabinet ministers and ZAS senior management led by its president, Mr Ngoni Kudenga.