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Supa Mandiwanzira ,DJ Sbu and Chamu Chiwanza

Melissa Mpofu recently in Harare
INFORMATION Communication Technology (ICT) Minister Supa Mandiwanzira and South African businessman-cum-DJ – Sibusiso Leope (DJ Sbu) have urged youths to be innovative and find ways to make money using social media instead of using the powerful platforms for gossip.

Speaking at the Shift Zimbabwe seminar held at the Meikles Hotel in Harare on Saturday, Minister Mandiwanzira, who has been trending on Twitter after he was involved in a nasty brawl with activist, Evans Mawarire over the #ThisFlag campaign, said he realised the impact of social media after the scuffle where the two exchanged words at the ZiFM Stereo studios.

“I’ve been a star of social media the last couple of days. I didn’t know what trending is until I saw that I was trending on social media for the wrong reasons because I dared put my views across about other people’s views,” said Minister Mandiwanzira

He said it was saddening how Zimbabweans had become so intolerant.

“We’ve become a society that doesn’t tolerate other people’s views and it’s so negative. When somebody puts up their point of view and especially if it undermines my point of view, I must be able to put the other side across because it does happen that in our society, we’ve those that are uninformed and sometimes uneducated and we don’t want them to be misled but hey, if you dare put your view, you trend.”

As a result, the minister wants people to use social media networks wisely and find ways to make money out of it, while also helping with the development of the nation.

“You can use social media for all you want. What’s important is before you click, post or tweet, ask yourself how much it’s going to change your life and others.

“You can tweet and complain about Zimbabwe’s problems, but for as long as you sit there, a white man, Chinese, Indian will come and address it and in the process, they’ll make money. Let’s stop complaining about the country and tweet about the solution to the problem that Zimbabwe has. Let’s do positive things that change our circumstances as people.”

In line with Shift Zimbabwe’s mission to empower youths, Mandiwanzira said the ICT ministry would soon be introducing an initiative where creative youths will be given money to come up with applications relevant to the local market.

“I’m amazed at the amount of talent young people have in terms of creativity and putting together applications that are useful to ourselves as Zimbabweans. We’ve already raised $1,5 million for this initiative where we want to fund young people with great ideas and great innovations,” Mandiwanzira said.

He said their plan was to create applications or games unique to Zimbabwe.

“We want to create things that are uniquely Zimbabwean which we’ll also be able to sell outside our borders. You can’t expect a young person in Silicone Valley to create a digital game called nhodo.

“Imagine if this is created locally into a digital game and it gets the excitement of those in the gaming industry in a big way, people will be able to make money because they’ll have developed something which isn’t common,” he said.

Supporting the minister, DJ Sbu, who was a guest speaker at the Shift Zimbabwe, said when he lost his job at Metro FM where he spoke to six million people every weekend, he had to rely on social media.

“Now that I don’t have that platform of speaking to six million people, what do I have? Social media, which I feel is beautiful, it’s an amazing invention. Mo Faya is the brand it is today because of social media as it has attracted investors on social media.

“People should use it constructively and positively, not discussing people,” DJ Sbu said.