News / National
Minister pleads for short farm management courses
20 Aug 2018 at 01:06hrs | Views
MATABELELAND North Provincial Affairs minister Cain Mathema has appealed to Lupane State University (LSU) to introduce a one year farm management course and introduce its own textbooks amid reports that the province had a shortage of agricultural experts.
Mathema made the call during the provincial farewell for the late heroine, Thokozile Mathuthu, last Thursday.
"Lupane State University must create an intensive one-year certificate course on farm management because we desperately need farm managers," Mathema said.
"We don't have them. We have the farms, but the owners don't have the managers. We also have the financial assistance from our banks, but what we don't have are managers. We want it to be one of the few universities that offer intensive certificates in farm management."
Mathema said he wanted the region to author its own history and have it taught in universities as there were many existing cultures that had not been talked and written about.
"I hope that one day somebody is going to write a biography about us. We love biographies of foreign leaders, foreign revolutionaries and forget ourselves," the minister said.
"Our scholars, professors and lecturers in the region are here. Let us write about ourselves and take pride in whom we are. Let's write about umama uMathuthu, about the tradition and culture in Matabeleland North. We are tired of these Ndebele-Shona words every day.
"The real life is more complex than that. Let's write history ourselves because if you keep on crying that others don't write about me and they talk too much about themselves, indeed, why do you expect other people to write about yourself?"Mathema said.
"Write our own history so that our universities are full of books written by us. I would love some day to be at Lupane State University, reading textbooks that are written by our regional people. Using agricultural-based textbook system, whose main task is anchored on agricultural studies, so you can build a mind of tomorrow."
He also urged those gathered to shun tribalism, saying the practice was a brain-child of the colonisers.
Mathema made the call during the provincial farewell for the late heroine, Thokozile Mathuthu, last Thursday.
"Lupane State University must create an intensive one-year certificate course on farm management because we desperately need farm managers," Mathema said.
"We don't have them. We have the farms, but the owners don't have the managers. We also have the financial assistance from our banks, but what we don't have are managers. We want it to be one of the few universities that offer intensive certificates in farm management."
Mathema said he wanted the region to author its own history and have it taught in universities as there were many existing cultures that had not been talked and written about.
"Our scholars, professors and lecturers in the region are here. Let us write about ourselves and take pride in whom we are. Let's write about umama uMathuthu, about the tradition and culture in Matabeleland North. We are tired of these Ndebele-Shona words every day.
"The real life is more complex than that. Let's write history ourselves because if you keep on crying that others don't write about me and they talk too much about themselves, indeed, why do you expect other people to write about yourself?"Mathema said.
"Write our own history so that our universities are full of books written by us. I would love some day to be at Lupane State University, reading textbooks that are written by our regional people. Using agricultural-based textbook system, whose main task is anchored on agricultural studies, so you can build a mind of tomorrow."
He also urged those gathered to shun tribalism, saying the practice was a brain-child of the colonisers.
Source - newsday
