Who has got the Midas touch?

2012.
This is the 12th year in succession that the chain store for motor parts and accessories has sponsored the challenge. Entries are being received from all over the country and the tests will be written in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare on Friday August 24 and in Kwekwe on Saturday August 25.
Each year the popular competition aims at finding Zimbabwe’s top expert on automotive parts, hosting a regional test in the four centres in which Zim-Midas operates — Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru — followed by a national final for the top three from each of the four regional tests.
Entry is open to anyone involved or interested in the parts business, whether technicians, administrators or sales people.
The original Midas franchise holders in Zimbabwe, Zim-Midas Parts Centres are part of the Clover Leaf Motors Group, one of the country’s leading motor trade organisations, which launched the competition in 2001 and has run it each year since then, with hundreds of participants entering each time.
Clover Leaf Motors sales and marketing manager Mr Admire Ndumo told guests at a launch ceremony that the annual parts challenge had become one of the best known and most important events in the Zimbabwean automotive industry calendar and helped raise standards in the parts trade.
He said the competition had become even more successful than had originally been predicted.
“A decade or so ago we conceptualised this competition and we never imaged that it would prove to be the success that it has been and that 12 years later we would still be presenting this event to the Zimbabwean motor industry.
“When we first launched this competition there were a number of other initiatives taking place within the industry, but all of them have now disappeared and so I am very proud that we are still running, despite all the challenges we have faced over the past 12 years in undertaking the event each year,” he said.
He added that the competition is aimed at people in the motor trade and it is initiated and sponsored by the Zim-Midas Parts Centre division of the Clover Leaf Motors Group.
“We have been pleased with the turnout of competitors over the years and we hope that this year we may continue to enjoy good support from across the country. The people in the motor trade who are involved with the trade and use of parts are among the people who find Zim-Midas Parts centres essential to their livelihood and to keeping vehicles on the road.
“It is at this important group that we are again targeting this competition. This includes people in sales and marketing, as well as technical people such as mechanics and technicians — and indeed anyone who is either interested or involved in the vehicles parts business.” 
He challenged everyone involved in the parts trade to come forward and enter, and suggested people in the motor trade should engage in a continuous self-improvement exercise regarding parts knowledge and understanding, for the ultimate benefit of the motoring public.
Cash prizes would be handed out to the top three participants at regional and national level.
Regional tests will take place in late August, followed by the national test and prize-giving, to be held in Kwekwe at the end of Sep-                       tember.