Chronicle Editor
Wallace Ruzvidzo, Harare Bureau
Zimbabwe is now producing enough number plates to meet local demand and supply other SADC countries, with negotiations already underway for the country to start exports, University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo has said.
What was once a hall that housed mining equipment is now the university’s number plate manufacturing plant that produces 30 plates per minute, equating to at least 14 000 a day when there is demand for that number.
Our Harare Bureau visited the bustling plant last week to see the impetus of Education 5.0, surrounded by the hum of machinery and the gleam of freshly minted number plates.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by heaps of shiny, metallic plates stacked high, like a treasure trove of silver and gold.
The workers, a vibrant and youthful team, busied themselves with the manufacturing process.
As we toured the facility, we witnessed the number plates being manufactured from scratch, a process that was both fascinating and easy to follow. Prof Mapfumo, beaming with pride, showed off the innovative machine used for producing third plates, a feat of engineering that was developed in-house by the university, rather than being imported. The machine whirred and whizzed, spitting out perfectly formed plates with ease, a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the team.
Previously, number plates for Zimbabwe’s vehicles were manufactured in Germany and their shortage was a common feature but since the coming in of the Second Republic, President Mnangagwa has called for home- grown solutions to the country’s needs and requirements.
Prof Mapfumo said Government had invested more than US$1 million in the plant but that investment had saved the country’s foreign currency through import substitution.
“This (number plate manufacturing) is already at the commercial stage. The capacity for the plant means we are able to actually do it for the region.
“We can produce about 30 plates per minute. And that will give us probably an order of 14 000 per day if we work with our hours.
“And that means we can satisfy our local market and supply a far larger market if we produce like that, so I think we can respond to the region if that need arises,” he said.
Previously, said Prof Mapfumo, Government had been forking out way more than it invested to import the number plates. As such, President Mnangagwa directed the country’s tertiary institutions to see how they could be made locally.
The commencing of number plate manufacturing, he said, became a turning point in the country’s Heritage Based Education 5.0.
“His Excellency, the President, Chancellor of this university, officially commissioned this plant on the 2nd of December, 2022, if you remember. I remember the idea to import substitution on some of the key products for which we pay the forex through import.
“One of those that was troubling us was number plates and we started to introspect, locate our capacities, to find out if we could then have the capability to produce the number plates,” he said.
The University of Zimbabwe worked in tandem with the Ministry of Higher Education to bring the number plate plant to life.
“So we worked coordinated by our parent ministry, the championship of our Honourable Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, and the Permanent Secretary Prof Fanuel Tagwira coordinated us, gave us that challenge, tasked me to bring together others so that we could do that.
“So we established a team led by the investors. I think what it did, it gave us that self-belief. But I think for some of us, it’s the people who firmly believe in the philosophy nyika inovakwa nevene vayo as pronounced by His Excellency, we were never in doubt that we can do it.
“We have always said maybe if we are given the same level of support, our level of thinking is the same as what we get elsewhere abroad.
“And I think us as academics, as thinkers, once you get that assurance, you can do a lot of things. And you can inspire the young ones that we superintend to do even bigger because nobody has a monopoly of innovation, a monopoly of thinking,” he said.
Prof Mapfumo said it had been encouraging to note the progress Zimbabwe was making when tertiary institutions came together as opposed to having silo mentalities.
The country’s youth demographic, he added, was a major advantage as they had potential to do even bigger.
“They (youth) can do more than we can imagine. And there is also potential in us that we can also surprise us even once you get that playground open.
“So we felt very good and one of the source of the incredible feeling is the idea that we can actually come together to do it as institutions.
“In the past, I think there was a little bit more of silo mentality, more of ‘I do, they don’t do’ and so on, but I think this is one of the projects that does show that we can put that away and just work together I don’t mind who contributes more contributes less and so on I take it as a learning curve.
“Some don’t contribute but they will learn that ‘okay it is doable let me join’ so I don’t mind who joins it at whatever stage as long as the spirit is now there so I think that’s the motivation and the inspiration that we got out of this. We feel that the nation should know that it can be done by ourselves and I feel very good about that,” said Prof Mapfumo.
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