The ManicaPost
Moffat Mungazi
Post Reporter
SINCE occupying the highest office on the land, President Mnangagwa has come across as a man who walks his talk.
Put simply, the President practices what he preaches.
While he did not take to the podium to preach during his visit to the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church’s Mafararikwa Shrine in Marange, Bocha last week on Saturday, President Mnagangwa spoke loudly through his humble demeanour.
He took time off his busy schedule to join the pilgrims, numbering over 100 000, drawn from different parts of Africa for the church’s annual Passover gathering.
In his personification of humility, the President sat among the church members and listened attentively as preachers took turns to share the Word of God.
The preachers expressed gratitude to President Mnangagwa for joining them and hailed his humility, which they said is worth emulating.
This one good turn by the President deserved another, and the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church immediately returned the favour by declaring that it was solidly throwing its full weight behind him.
The visit to the Mafararikwa Shrine was in honour of the word the President had given that he would attend the Passover gathering.
When he made a private visit to the Taguta family on May 7 to pay his condolences following the death of the church’s leader, High Priest Mutumwa Noah Taguta, he promised that he would return for the annual event.
“I came here quietly to meet the family. The late Saint Noah, the High Priest, was a very close friend of mine. We shared views about the church and the country. I was so saddened when I was informed that he had passed on.
“When he died there were a lot of people congregating here and I sent the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Nokuthula Matsikenyere, to represent me.
“I decided that when everything was quite, I would come and meet the family and the new High Priest. I will meet the church in July,” said President Mnangagwa back in May.
This was not an empty promise.
A little over two months later, the President fulfilled it.
He proved to be a man of his word.
Iindeed, one that can be relied on.
In his address to the gathering, President Mnangagwa committed to assist the church in building more schools.
This is in fulfillment of discussions made with the late High Priest St Noah Taguta in their first ever engagement over 20 years ago.
Said President Mnangagwa: “When we first met, I told St Noah Taguta to consider building schools. I joined him on the crusade of constructing schools and I laid the first brick at the first school the church built. Now several schools have been built and the new leader has promised to continue with this legacy.
“As Government, we will continue supporting the church in this endeavor. We will also avail computers to the schools.”
Under the stewardship of the late High Priest Taguta, the Johane Marange Apostolic Church built the St Noah Group of Schools comprising seven learning institutions — St Noah One and Two, St Abel, St Zacharia, St Makaab, as well as St Arnold One and Two.
True to his word, President Mnangagwa, accompanied by Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, donated 40 computers to St Noah Group of Schools in May after paying condolences to the Taguta family.
Building schools is in line with the National Development Strategy (NDS1) to reconfigure the education sector and make it more result oriented through Education 5.0.
To equip the schools with digital learning accessories is also in tandem with one of the 14 key pillars of NDS1 under the Digital Economy Cluster.
The drive to promote access to and improve usage of ICTs in schools has seen several schools in Manicaland Province and across the country receiving the requisite apparatus.
Reconfiguring from Education 3.0 to Education 5.0 is meant to improve the education value chain.
The infrastructural development and rehabilitation of schools, colleges, universities and training institutions aims to promote specialist skills for industry, commerce and the public sector, thereby leading to increased innovation for industrialisation.
This ultimately creates a specialised workforce with improved access and utilisation of advanced knowledge and technologies and this has prompted the establishment of innovation hubs and industrial parks.
To that end, President Mnangagwa’s leadership is moving to improve access to quality, equitable and inclusive education.
This has seen Government making great strides in ensuring that every child gets access to the inalienable right to education by slashing this year’s examination fees by 55 percent.
Government has also committed to footing 100 percent exam costs for all learners under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) as part of measures to ensure that children benefit from State-funded basic education in public schools.
With such an arrangement in place, no child will be left behind in accessing education as all leaners whose parents cannot afford the subsidised exams fees will be covered by BEAM.
The overall objective is the spirited pursuit of Vision 2030 to ensure that the country attains a prosperous and empowered upper middle income society by 2030 while mainstreaming cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, empowerment of youth and people with disabilities, as well as the development of the education, arts and information communication technology sectors.
Zimbabwe is making remarkable progress in areas of economic growth and social transformation, thanks to the astute leadership of President Mnangagwa as he continues to deliver on his word which he is turning into good deeds.
