Gwanda's 90% youth in gold panning

An MP for Matabeleland South  M. Khumalo has said 90% of Gwanda's youth are in gold panning and the opening of the Gwanda University will help ensure that youth get education on how they should properly conduct mining.

Speaking in parliament Khumalo thanked the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education for coming up with this noble idea to bring such a relevant university to  town, Gwanda in Matabeleland South province.

"Gwanda and part of Matabeleland has always been known for having a lot of gold including Filabusi and others. Bringing such a university that will come to teach our kith and kin how to mine properly and how to beneficiate the minerals in our province, I think our province will be a better province than before," she said.

"As the Ministry is coming up with such an important Bill, I was thinking to myself right now that I hope the other part of the Executive will now look seriously into the issue of formalising the artisanal miners so that they become proper miners in order for this whole chain of events to be a very successful and meaningful process."

She said  because if you look at Gwanda, 90 percent of employment comes from the so called makorokozas, the artisanal miners.

"That is where the money comes from. If we have a university, they will be taught how to do the mining properly. This means that subsequently, we are going to have a proper structure and proper employment. The two million jobs that we were talking about shall be contributed from Gwanda through that university. So, it is a very noble move indeed," she said.

"I would also want to thank the Ministry for thinking about the meteorological department as well. As you know Matabeleland South is always drought prone. If we now have a school that will now be able to predict accurately our climate system, we might be able to come up with measures to avert the starving situation that we have in Matabeleland South. I hope the curricular that the Ministry is going to put across will ensure that they teach our people things like cloud seeding. In the agricultural sector, they must teach them how to plant drought resistant crops so that Matabeleland South will have something to benefit from such a noble idea that was brought in by the Government."

Khumalo said Matabeleland South is now a province.

"I stand here as an Member of Parliament from Matabeleland very proud to be associated with such a great man, very proud to be associated with such a Ministry led by these two gentlemen, Hon. Professor Jonathan  Moyo and Hon. Dr. Godfrey Gandawa. You make us happy indeed. We are now able to go back to our constituents and tell them that the Government is thinking about you and it is doing something for you. Here is the evidence. Well done and keep it up. Ngiyabonga," she said