Gwanda State University unveils ambitious, integrated masterplan

GWANDA State University (GSU) has unveiled an ambitious masterplan to guide the construction of its main campus in Gwanda Town, which will be one of the giant modernisation projects for the Matabeleland South provincial capital.

The university is targeting to commence construction work next year as it is finalising works on its Epoch Mine Campus this year.

The higher-learning institution seeks to construct high-rise buildings taking advantage of the limited space where the campus will be situated in Gwanda Town and will occupy 90 hectares of land.

The university will run with two campuses, the Epoch Mine Campus in Insiza District, which houses the mining and agricultural programmes.

GSU Vice Chancellor, Professor Doreen Zandile Moyo, has said the university was excited to have its master plan approved as the development speaks to the growth trajectory of the university.

“The Gwanda campus is our main campus and we have a 90-hectare plot that was donated to us by the Government. We have done a comprehensive masterplan, it has all the administration, lecture rooms and other facilities,” she said.

“We submitted the masterplan to the Gwanda Municipality last year in September and the municipality conducted all the due processes and it was approved at the end of the year,” said Prof Moyo.

She said the university wanted the construction programme to commence in 2026.

“We will start with a multi-purpose building that will consist of lecture rooms, laboratories and offices and we intend to do a groundbreaking ceremony next year.

“We are aware that the ongoing programmes are funded by the fiscus. This year, we are going to start some work, we are going to start by fencing the plot and also do the three-dimensional designs of the multi-purpose building,” said Prof Moyo.

She said the Gwanda campus was important to the university as it would allow it to expand its programmes. The university is supposed to have a total of seven faculties and at the moment only three are offered.

“At the Epoch Mine Campus we are only offering three and the other four will be offered in our Gwanda campus,” said Prof Moyo.

“It will enable us to increase our student enrolment and offer post-graduate studies. Our community engagement drive will be a better place. So, for us, the Gwanda campus is very important.

“The Epoch Mine Campus will remain our campus, it’s important for our mining programmes, and it will be important for our agriculture programmes. So, we will continue to run the programmes at the Gwanda Campus,” she said.

“We have an agro-industrial hub here, which is very vibrant. So, it will be important for us to continue rolling it out and generating income. It will be a centre for our rural industrialisation programme.”

Prof Moyo said the university will soon present the master plan to its stakeholders. GSU physical planning, works and estate director, Engineer Ezias Mabasa, presented a summary of the masterplan to the university’s administration yesterday.

The masterplan shows that once completed, the university will transform the face of Gwanda Town, making it the hub of modernity in the mining town. It will be compact and dominated by high-rise buildings.

“There are quite a number of buildings that will be constructed, which in general shall be administrative structures, teaching and learning sites, innovation hubs, areas for transport circulation,” said Eng Mabasa.

“There are some open spaces that have been left out for agricultural purposes as well as sporting facilities. The design was done in line with the Heritage-Based Education 5.0 concept.

“Most of the faculties are going to be high-rise buildings to conserve space since we have 90 hectares only.”

He said the university will construct an eight-storey students’ accommodation and a students’ service centre complex to be occupied by service providers.

Eng Mabasa said the university is also going to construct a medical centre, which will start off as a small clinic but will be developed into a university hospital. He said the university will have an agricultural research and innovation hub sitting on a 10 hectares piece of land while also having an artificial aquaculture dam.

“An industrial park will also be constructed with quite a number of facilities to allow students to apply their knowledge and manufacture products that can be sold to the market. Students doing engineering and life sciences will have their workshop constructed,” he said.

Eng Mabasa said a multi-purpose sporting facility aligning with Olympic standards will be constructed to cater for indoor and outdoor activities.

In our initial post, we included an image of a building provided by the project architects to illustrate the architectural vision. This image, designed by Chigama Architects in Windhoek, Namibia, was shared with the project team in 2018 for reference.

Chigama Architects has since requested the removal of their images from all project-related materials to protect their copyright. We have complied with this request.