GOROMONZI- President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday hijacked an e-learning project initiated by Information Communication Technology (ICT) minister Nelson Chamisa at Chogugudza Primary School in Goromonzi. Chamisa was meant to officiate but Mugabe saw an opportunity to campaign and took it.
Instead of complaining Chamisa allowed Mugabe to officiate at the ceremony and even praised him for Zimbabwe’s education system, saying it had seen him become a minister at a young age. The ICT minister, at 34 years, is the youngest minister in Cabinet.
Speaking at the launch of the National e-Learning Programme Chamisa said “We are here to celebrate the signature, a footprint and the indelible mark of a successful education system, a system that not only has produced doctors and engineers but a young minister like myself,” he said to loud cheers.
“The President has provided leadership from the cockpit and we are prepared to be the passengers. When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, he had with him two tablets that had the Ten Commandments, however, today, your Excellency; we will provide you with one tablet. This tablet will ensure that you are wiser than all the kings we have known,” he said.
Turning to the launch, Chamisa said, Zimbabwe was in the throes of a great revolution, a revolution where everyone is in charge and a significant player.
“The beauty of the Internet revolution is that it ushers in and stands for the abbreviation of time, the abbreviation of distance, the abbreviation of effort yet certainly not the abbreviation of life and pleasure,” he said.
The ministry looks forward to transforming Zimbabwe into a digital country, a knowledge economy and information society with ubiquitous connectivity by 2015. “As some say, connect a school, connect a community. Ours is the desire to connect everyone, everywhere, anytime,” he said.
Meanwhile presidential spokesperson George Charamba has denied allegations of hijacking Chamisa’s programme, saying Mugabe was the pioneer of the computerisation programme. “The President was invited and he does not have to hijack a programme,” said Charamba.
“The Ministry of ICT is just building on the foundation which the President started a long time ago. Do you think he can hijack this project when he has given the whole country computers as the pioneer and head of government?
“If the President is invited to a launch, the host has to send a draft speech and a draft programme which have to be looked at and worked on by the permanent secretary and the chief of protocol respectively and be turned into a Presidential speech and a Presidential programme, that is the standard procedure.”
