daniel chigunwe
Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
THE digitisation of Government departments and agencies, which was proclaimed by President Mnangagwa, is now in full swing with the first batch of rural district councils receiving their ICT gadgets yesterday.
Handing over 415 ICT gadgets to 39 rural councils, Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera said during the last Cabinet meeting last year, the President directed that the digitisation drive be quickly rolled out.
“We want to thank our visionary leader, President Mnangagwa, who has emphasised that we need to digitalise our Government departments. We realised that the first port of call, especially for the citizens is the councils.
“So, when we did our analysis for us to find out which Government departments need capacitation, we realised that RDCs need great capacitation.”
She said the capacitation of councils remains at the heart of the President’s vision.
“This is very, very important because we realised that in terms of service delivery, in terms of even their capacity, whatever they need to do will be enhanced very much.
“We are very happy that these 415 computers will go a long way towards capacitating our RDCs, and also for us to be able to attain a digitalised Zimbabwe.”
Minister Mavetera said they will take all the necessary steps to equip the councils.
“We need to be able to equip them with the hardware. We have also gone some way in terms of connectivity, high-value connectivity, also increasing the uptime.
“So we have engaged the Ministry of Local Government and said to them, it is quite important for them to also look at initiatives to provide alternative power sources, so that when it comes to connectivity, it is readily available, especially for RDCs.”
Accepting the gadgets on behalf of Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, his deputy Benjamin Kabikira said the donation will go a long way in improving efficiency among councils.
Deputy Minister Kabikira said as a ministry, they are happy that the donation of computers will essentially accelerate the modernisation and digitisation agenda in pursuit of Vision 2030 and to be compliant in terms of service delivery by local authorities as outlined in the Call to Action Blueprint.
“I am happy to report that your donation has gone a long way in giving wings to our ministry’s thrust of accelerating modernising and digitising our operations at all levels,” he said.
Deputy Minister Kabikira said Information Communication Technology has become an undoubted pillar of national development, and rural areas must be never left behind in the digital transformation journey.
Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe chairman, Dr Aaron Shamu, thanked President Mnangagwa for remembering this third tier of Government with such a good donation.
