Online Reporter
Vusumuzi Dube, Deputy Radar Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is set to turn one of its underutilised beerhalls into a cutting-edge Innovation Techno Centre aimed at fostering technology development and entrepreneurship within the city.
The initiative seeks to repurpose the Marisha Beerhall, which is located in Old Magwegwe, into a hub where young innovators, startups and small businesses can access resources, training and mentorship in digital technologies and innovation.
According to the latest council report, the facility had been identified because of its great potential as a training centre given its infrastructure, location and capacity.
“The centre would provide training in carpentry, welding and leather work. This was a bid to extend skills training and capacitation of the City’s youths to enhance service delivery in underserviced areas.
“The site had a wide catchment area in terms of trainees who would gravitate to it for training, comprising Old Magwegwe, New Magwegwe, Pelandaba West, Pumula East and North, Magwegwe West and North, Lobengula West and New Lobengula,” reads the report.
The local authority further noted that young people in the city lacked operational space to incubate their enterprises therefore this facility would come in handy and it also availed them with an opportunity to partner with supporting development partners and stakeholders to provide modern skills training facility and equipment.
“Converting Marisha Beer Garden into a training centre would put the facility, which was lying idle, into good use and this would enhance youth empowerment in the City. Youths in the surrounding communities had no working space to earn some livelihoods hence they would get an opportunity and space to operate from, avoiding the scourge of drug abuse,” reads the report.
Bongani Ndlovu