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Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Health Reporter
HIGH school pupils should make use of the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) Innovation Hub to incubate their innovations and assist the country in finding solutions to numerous societal problems.

These hubs nurture an enabling environment where a community of entrepreneurs including students and high school pupils can grow and contribute to the development of Zimbabwe.

This was said by Nust director for communication and marketing Mr Thabani Mpofu while donating to John Tallach High School recently.

The school has been the hardest hit in the country and has recorded more than 185 Covid-19 cases.

Mr Mpofu said the university has been manufacturing sanitisers, disinfectants, face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) to help different communities and companies fight the global pandemic.

He said such innovations were crucial in mitigating the country’s challenges and invited high school pupils to partner with Nust Innovation Hub.

Mr Mpofu said the donation was part of the university’s contribution to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

“When the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak was confirmed in the country, the university quickly set up the country’s second national Covid-19 testing centre at Mpilo Central Hospital using its state-of-the-art equipment from the Applied Genetic Testing Centre (AGTC) among other measures of fighting the pandemic.

High school pupils should therefore work together with Nust remotely during this Covid-19 period to create a community of young innovative entrepreneurs,” said Mr Mpofu.

He said the Nust learning environment encourages students to think outside the box driven by the University motto of “Think In Other Terms”.

“As a demonstration that Nust produces entrepreneurial graduates, one of our student Part 4 Electronic Engineering student, Rutendo Happiness Marandure will be representing Zimbabwean and Nust in Accra, Ghana after winning an award at the 4th Africa Space Generation SGAC-DARA Big Data Hackathon Competition, which was held online from the 1st to the 3rd of December 2020,” said Mr Mpofu.

He said the three-day online hackathon competition was for students and young professionals in Africa and is part of a programme to develop data science, programming and related skills on the continent in the context of huge radio astronomy projects.

“To win the hackathon, Rutendo teamed up with three other participants she met online, Tiwalade Aderemi, Blessing Osarumwense and Andrew Dodzomenyo. They received full sponsorship to travel to Ghana for the 4th Africa Space Generation Workshop to be held in Accra from the 25 to 26 February 2021,” he said.

Mr Mpofu said such successes should encourage pupils at John Tallach and other schools to take their studies seriously and aim higher in life.

John Tallach head Mr Bonakele Ncube expressed appreciation for the donation saying it will go a long way in protecting pupils from further infections.

He said the 185 pupils who had initially tested positive had recovered and that the school is only dealing with exam classes as the rest of the pupils had been released to avoid cross infections.

“We have been receiving some donations of disinfectants and sanitisers with the label Nustiser and today we are happy that Nust, the producers of the product are here to meet our needs.

Nust is our university so we are happy to see them coming to our rescue as the outbreak of Covid-19 left us in need of PPE,” said Mr Ncube. — @thamamoe