Mugabe narrates passion for the Midlands province

President Mugabe yesterday said he had a special connection with the Midlands province after he spent his youthful days in the province as a teacher and later as a prisoner.

Addressing delegates soon after officially opening a state-of-the-art Gweru Information Centre yesterday, on the sidelines of the youth interface meeting, President Mugabe said he still had bitter-sweet memories of the province.

"Gweru is my city, Gweru has never left my mind. When I say Gweru I mean the Midlands Province. I have fond memories of this city, the province where I spent years as a teacher at Driefontein then Mambo Secondary and later as a prisoner," said the President.

He said he remembered the province very well when he was the only teacher with a Degree and that when he was transferred to Harare, the province's then schools inspector had to plead with the authorities and then protested after failing to win against his transfer to Highfield, Harare.

"After attaining my first degree, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English in 1952 through correspondence, I came to teach in this province and when I was transferred to Harare, the schools inspector then pleaded with the authorities, saying you are taking the only teacher who has a degree in the province," said the President drawing laughter.

He said he later taught in Highfield, Harare, but was to come back in the Midlands Province, this time at Mambo Secondary after the Midlands schools inspector won the fight for his "most educated" teacher to come back.

"So you see Gweru is not new to me. I came here also in another form as a prisoner at Whawha Prison where I spent many years," he said.

The President said Midlands province was the largest of all the country's 10 provinces and implored its leaders to remain united by working as a team to give the Zanu-PF party the biggest number of votes come elections next year. "I know Midlands, I know the province is one of the largest of our 10 provinces but Hungwe (Psycho Motor Minister, Josiah Hungwe) who is here would say aah Masvingo.

"Midlands is the largest so we need to be united and show this through votes. We need to be united and unity needs a kind of discipline. Discipline to work together. Do we still have it? We need to examine ourselves and correct ourselves. This is the rule," he said.

Commenting on the establishment of the Information Centre, President Mugabe said the initiative was part of the Presidential Interface Rallies mandate in all the provinces.

"We have been doing this in all the provinces where we have gone. Opening an information centre has been part of our programme in all the provinces we have visited so-far. We are now left with three provinces, Mashonaland Central, Bulawayo and Harare," he said.

The Information centre is in line with the global trends where every piece of information is now found on the internet.

"When we grew up, we would communicate using letters and we will wait for weeks to get that response but now have internet technology, we are in a modern world and these information centres will help in as far as research is concerned," he said.

President Mugabe said the internet technology has brought with it its challenges but was necessary in the digital age.

"Although it doesn't give in-depth like the books we used, life has become vaster than it was yesterday hence we need connectivity, this is our world now," he said.

President Mugabe also donated computers to a number of schools in the province.

Some of the school which received the computers are Leopold Takawira Primary in Mvuma, Dove Secondary in Mberengwa and Chironde Primary.
Each school got 20 computers.