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Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
WHEN one imagines a group of youths congregating in one place, especially in Bulawayo’s western suburbs, perhaps their first thought will be that nothing good or productive will come of out of that convergence of young minds.
This is, after all, the age of drugs and njengu, illicit substances that continue to leave usually young and vibrant youths looking like pale and fast fading shadows of what they are supposed to be. Drugs, drunkenness and everything in between would have perhaps what one would imagine when told that hour after hour, day after day, young people now congregate around the Caravan area in Cowdray Park in their numbers.
Sprinkled around these young people, are usually older members of the older generation who are also seemingly addicted to the same delights that that young residents in Cowdray simply cannot seem to be able to resist. Like bees to honey, the many young and the few old all seem to congregate on the same spot.
However, unlike bees, there is barely a buzz around their chosen hub, with all their attention seemingly fixed on the devices on their hands. Their heads bowed, paying maximum attention to the devices on their hands and laps, they seem to be entrapped by a substance that is more intoxicating than nectar.
It seems remarkable that this place, which is now visited by hundreds of people daily, was the same location that was shunned a few months back by kombis for having deplorable roads during the height of the rainy season. However, since aspiring Cowdray Park legislator Professor Mthuli Ncube, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, declared his intention to run for the House of Assembly, residents in the area have learnt that, when it rains, it does not always pour, as good tidings can be brought by men and women with the best of intentions.
Hot on the heels of the grading of the Caravan-Esigodweni Road, free Wi-Fi has been rolled out in five hotspots in the suburb, ushering what has sometimes been mistakenly labelled a backwater in Bulawayo firmly into the digital age. Cowdray Park suburb which has over 75 000 residents, is the second-largest suburb in the country after Budiriro in Harare. Despite its rapid growth, Cowdray Park lags behind in terms of development.
A section of the suburb known as Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai has a poor road network and some houses in this part of the suburb are yet to be connected to the sewer system. This section of the suburb is yet to be electrified. As a man who has crunched numbers all his life, Prof Ncube told Sunday News in an interview that he believed the suburb could be a shining example of what was possible, if it was given the necessary tools to build the genesis of a digital economy, with the construction of free Wi-Fi zones a key step in that direction.
“On digital economy again, I have laid down the infrastructure to support digitalisation and the digital economy now people are talking about artificial intelligence, people of Cowdray Park wont access that if they don’t have basic infrastructure or if it’s expensive so I have laid the foundation by providing equipment that will provide free Wi-Fi so today I went to test so it works so you find free Wi-Fi to school and in residence,” he said.
Prof Ncube said that the free Wi-Fi zones, which are five in total, would be equipped with a sophisticated surveillance system to repel vandals.
“We want everyone in Cowdray park to access this free Wi-Fi and I tested it and it works. I was able to make a call on WhatsApp using the WIFI that is at the police caravan and some of the infrastructure is quite sophisticated we also got the camera, the camera can also be used by the police to watch the surrounding areas so at the moment the Wi-Fi at the police caravan camera can monitor what is going in the surrounding.
Using their iPhones straight out of the phones you can watch and see what the area looks like. If someone does not vandalise the Wi-Fi, now we can deliver materials electronically, I will procure some laptops for the schools so that our pupils at the school can make full use of these materials for learning purposes,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu