SIFISO MAPURANGA
Mining giant, Kuvimba Mining House, has fulfilled a pledge made last year towards the ED-UNZA initiative to sponsor underprivileged students to go for tertiary education and fulfil their dreams.
The ED-UNZA programme was formed in 2019 by President Emmerson Mnangagwa with a mandate to identify intelligent but underprivileged students to assist with their education.
So far, the initiative has seen over 40 students benefitting and studying in Zimbabwe and Zambia where some of them have performed well in their law and medicine studies.
KMH in 2021 pledged to contribute towards Mnangagwa’s programme and has since identified five students who are now studying towards a degree in Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Zimbabwe.
KMH CEO Simbarashe Chinyemba said the company will continue to help the students and will take them up for their industrial attachment and ultimately employ them if they excel in their studies.
“We made this commitment a while ago, probably almost a year now, and when we made this commitment, we were answering a call from His Excellency about helping out,” Chinyemba said.
“In fact, ED-UNZA, l think initially talked a lot about law because of the background of His Excellency and Kuvimba Mining House raised its hand and said we would want to support but on one condition that we will be doing it but for things that are related to mining.”
“ED-UNZA Foundation was very happy with that and this now is what we have as a result of having accepted that,” he added.
ED-UNZA chairperson Herbert Nkala thanked KMH for the gesture saying the programme will remain even after Mnangagwa’s presidency as it continues to be part of the President’s legacy.
“In 2021 Kuvimba Mining House made a pledge that they will send five students to study mining engineering. Since then, our ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education has been going around the country to identify them and we have got five young people here from five different provinces,” Nkala said.
“KMH has now given them a chance to go to university, and they are starting immediately. They (Kuvimba) are going to pay their fees, give them money for their upkeep and as you have just seen, the computers and other things to use.”
