Construction at Nust to resume this year

THE National University of Science and Technology (Nust) in Bulawayo will this year commence construction work after Government reached an agreement with previous contractors to terminate their contracts.

The university has become synonymous with towering cranes as construction has long ceased with some of its buildings becoming dilapidated. Just a few of the structures at its main campus have been complete, with reports that the Nust administration was paying rentals for the cranes and other heavy equipment, some of which has been idle for more than ten years.

This saw residents continuously criticising the university for the delay in the completion of the university which was established in 1991.

It has however, since emerged that the Government, working with the university administration has since reached an agreement which will see the decommissioning of all old contracts. Speaking at the funeral service of the late former Town Clerk of Bulawayo, Dr Michael Ndubiwa held in Bulawayo yesterday, chairperson of the Nust council, Engineer Alvord Mabena said they had since declared 2021 as the year to build Nust.

"Of late, we at Nust, have been holding crucial meetings in Harare with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, where we were setting out a programme of action for building Nust.

Very soon, we will be decommissioning all the old contracts we started with, all those cranes will be coming down, and we will be commencing construction, once again. The year 2021 has been declared as a year to build Nust," said Eng Mabena.

Eng Mabena said according to the set programme of action, going forward, as the university holds its graduation ceremony every year, there must be a project or building complete and being commissioned.

The Nust Council chairperson said the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira in his condolence message to the Ndubiwa family had noted that the move to resume construction work at the university will be done in honour of his sterling contribution to the development of Nust.

"When we heard of the news of Dr Ndubiwa's passing, I personally telephoned the minister to inform him about it.

He was so saddened and officially asked me to convey his condolences to the Ndubiwa family and said; Dr Ndubiwa was a solid and glorious pillar who worked so hard for the realisation of a dream that will soon turn Nust into a world class university," he said.

Eng Mabena paid gratitude to the late Dr Ndubiwa noting that he was one of the iconic founders and luminaries in the establishment of Nust. Dr Ndubiwa is a former Council chairperson at Nust.

"It all started as an idea over 30 years ago, followed by civil society action groups, Government appointed international commissions of enquiry and then the identification of the 160 hectares of land and ultimately Nust was formed in 1991 with only 270 students.

"As we do business with various big corporates around the country, it is always a common feature that most of the current generation of their executives are, in fact, products of Nust and, it is also a fact that Nust graduates are the most preferred by industry. This is as a result of the quality and standards of graduates produced, all of which derive their esteem from the founding standards and value systems set out by our pioneers such as Dr Ndubiwa," said Eng Mabena.