Online Reporter
Mthabisi Tshuma,Online Reporter
BULILIMA Constituency legislator Cde Dingumuzi Phuti has pledged to continue uplifting the community of Bulilima District, Matabeleland South province with achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number four as part of his plans.
SDG 4 (Quality Education) aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
The specific targets for 2030 include ensuring all children complete free, quality primary and secondary education, guaranteeing access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education and eliminating gender disparities in education.
In that regard, Cde Phuti is financing the construction of a teachers cottage at Zompata Primary School in the district.
The school currently has one finished classroom block, one finished teachers cottage and a classroom block that awaits roofing. It houses pupils from ECD A to Grade 2 and has two teachers.
Last week, Cde Phuti donated 25 bags of cement towards the construction of the second teacher’s cottage where footing of the foundation was laid.
Cde Phuti is intending to finance the construction of the teachers cottage till it finishes, an initiative he has been doing in other infrastructure development projects that include construction of Nyele clinic cottage, Somnene clinic cottage, Gwambe clinic cottage and Diba clinic cottage among others.
Zompata Primary School construction began in 2019 and the school was officially opened in 2023.
Cde Phuti said the initiative is to instill self confidence among villagers.
“We have been walking the talk of His Excellency President Cde ED Mnangagwa of saying nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, hango inovakwa nevene vayo. So at local level through the spirit of devolution, every village, every ward should look inward and start from that small settlement to see what have we done.
“Also following the SDGs, the United Nations stipulates that no child should walk more than five kilometers to attain education, no patient should walk more than five kilometers to access health care. So we are deploying these social services so that we fulfill the vision of the President and the vision of the global community to say that there should be access,” said Cde Phuti.
Cde Phuti said the programmes are centred on President Mnangagwa’s 2030 vision of an upper middle income economy.
“When we say Vision 2030 in case of Zimbabwe, we are talking about reaching an upper middle income society by 2030 which is defined by access to those social services such as education, hence, concentration on such projects.
“Zompata becomes a very good case study of a school that started, sustained and made successful. We are very excited with the performance of learners at Zompata. We are also very excited with the change in attitude of our community which has started ownership of the school by way of making sure that after every structure, they go to another. So the footing program that we have done of a second cottage is to teach people and to remind them always the spirit of volunteerism and the spirit of ownership of their projects so that they are able to partner with Government in construction of these projects,” said Cde Phuti.
A youth Ms Langelihle Ndlovu said the construction of the school has helped their children pursue academic studies.
“Back in the days our children had to stay home as Tokwana Primary School is far but with the construction of Zompata, there are now able to learn and prepare themselves for a better future.
“As youths it is our responsibility to work hard in developing our areas as the future generation,” said Ms Ndlovu.
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