President Mugabe chats with Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa while Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko looks on, as they pose for photographs with Zimbabwe diamond cutting and polishing students bound for China at State House in Harare yesterday. — (Picture by Tawanda Mudimu)
Felex Share Senior Reporter
President Mugabe yesterday advanced value addition and beneficiation by dispatching 25 students to China for a one-year training course in diamond cutting and polishing.
This is the first batch of 50 students to go for such training in the Asian country this year while a similar number would follow every year until 2018.
Value addition and beneficiation are at the heart of the country’s economic blueprint Zim-Asset as well as the African Union’s 50 year development roadmap, Agenda 2063, that are both anchored on judicious exploitation of natural resources through value-addition and beneficiation to derive maximum returns for the people.
Agenda 2063 was launched during President Mugabe’s tenure as AU chairman last year.
Addressing the students at State House in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said the sending of learners to China was a “step in the right direction” as it supported tenets of the Government economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.
He said Zimbabwe had genuine diamonds, not imitations and they should benefit everyone.
“This is what we should do when we talk about Zim-Asset, industrialisation, beneficiating, adding value,” he said. “We don’t expect that this is done easily, it needs education. It is transformation that takes place and it doesn’t just take place, you must have the skill, knowledge, experience and that is the level we want most of our students to acquire. That practical orientation is vital and put your education into practice. Our diamonds are at the moment lying asleep underground and we must wake up, dig them up and let’s take the raw diamonds, cut and polish them. Some goes the way of making trinkets, we may want our necks to be decorated, earrings and we need watches, decorations of all sorts.”
Zimbabwe School of Mines is coordinating and managing the training of the students, which is funded by Harvest Way Diamond and Jewellery Private Limited.
The training is being done by Zheng Jingyi Vocational Technology School while the students have been drawn from all the 10 provinces in the country.
President Mugabe said up their return, the students should impart skills acquired on locals and this would be aided by a cutting and polishing centre that is on the cards.
“It is not the fact of the certificate that will matter, it is the fact now of your ability to use your hands to do what the certificate say you can do,” he said.
“This is the way we want to go. Thats when we dig out the diamonds we know the direction they will take. At the moment people just say ooh diamonds, diamonds, diamonds but even when we dig them out, so many carats and we just go with those carats they will not fetch as much as they will fetch when value will have been given to them.
“When you return, back home we will have prepared where you will do the cutting and polishing. We have looked at what our members are doing—Namibia, Botswana—and we have some knowledge of how they have travelled to what they are now and we want to travel also to the levels where we sell finished goods, polished diamonds not just raw carats.”
He expressed gratitude to the Chinese for availing the facilities the students would use.
As such, President Mugabe said, the students were expected to be morally upright and focus on their studies.
“We look forward to them attending the course seriously and carefully applying themselves and coming back having acquired something,” he said.
“No one should come back having failed. I wish you well and we will be listening to hear how you are progressing. Show the Chinese that you can do it and they will also be too happy to take others to do the same course.”
Zimbabwe School of Mines chief executive Mr Dzingirai Tusai, said apart from value addition and beneficiation, the students would also train in processing of gemstones and gemstone enterprise management.
“The course is only done in China because we do not have the equipment, expertise and other technical resources to do it ourselves,” he said.
“General economics is said to say that for every unpolished carat that is exported, the country is losing 10 hours of labour. As so said, once these trainees have been trained all those unpolished gems that we are exporting will correct the value and benefit Zimbabwe.”
The send-off ceremony was witnessed by the two Vice Presidents, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko.