Growth and innovation at ZAS impresses President

**Zvamaida Murwira, [email protected] **

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has hailed this year’s Zimbabwe Agricultural Show as evidence that the country remains on a positive development path, saying the quality and diversity of exhibits demonstrated significant progress across various sectors of the economy.

The President made the remarks yesterday after spending nearly two hours touring exhibition stands at the Harare Exhibition Park during the 116th edition of the country’s premier agricultural showcase.

Accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Anxious Masuka, President Mnangagwa expressed satisfaction with what he had seen, noting that this year’s exhibition had improved markedly compared to 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.

He said it was encouraging to see exhibitors continuing to embrace innovation and develop new ideas that contribute to national growth and development.

“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 the tour, the President visited a wide range of exhibition stands representing different sectors of the economy.

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

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

At Parliament’s exhibition stand, President Mnangagwa was received by Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda and Senate President Cde Mabel Chinomona. The two briefed him on Parliament’s engagement with citizens and its role in supporting agricultural transformation through legislation, oversight and policy development.

At the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development stand, the President was welcomed by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Dr Polite Kambamura.

Throughout the tour, the Head of State interacted with exhibitors and members of the public, taking time to learn about new products, technologies and innovations being showcased.

One of the highlights of the tour was the Zinwa exhibition stand, where President Mnangagwa was introduced to an N-Space machine, a modern monitoring system used to track dam construction projects in real time.

Zinwa acting chief executive officer Engineer Waddilove Mandiziba explained that the technology allows engineers to monitor dam projects remotely and respond quickly to any challenges that may arise.

“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.

He said the technology had significantly improved the inspection of dam infrastructure, particularly in areas that are difficult to access.

“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 system was installed by Makomo Engineering, which is also involved in the construction of Kunzvi Dam.

As part of the demonstration, Engineer Mandiziba linked up with engineers working at Kunzvi Dam to show the President how faults can be identified and resolved in real time.

He said the technology aligns with the Second Republic’s drive towards modernisation, industrialisation and innovation under Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2.

President Mnangagwa was welcomed on arrival at the Exhibition Park by Vice Presidents Dr Constantino Chiwenga and Dr Kembo Mohadi, Cabinet ministers and Zimbabwe Agricultural Society senior officials led by president Mr Ngoni Kudenga.