JUBILATION punctuated by singing and ululations was the order of the day on Sunday as scores of residents in Sizinda under Bulawayo South constituency received a US$120 000 mobile computer bus donated by their MP, Cde Raj Modi.
Cde Modi, who is representing Zanu-PF in the August 23 harmonised elections, is seeking re-election to the National Assembly.
He is the only Zanu-PF candidate who won in Bulawayo’s parliamentary seats when he was elected MP for Bulawayo South in the 2018 elections.
The ruling party is confident of wresting more seats from the opposition in the harmonised elections.
Modi launches computer bus
The donated bus has 46 solar-powered computers and a big screen that will be used by the facilitators when conducting tutorials.
Cde Modi who is also the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, said the bus will have a stipulated timetable of covering the constituency.
He said they are targeting everyone who is unemployed so that they acquire basic computer training in graphics and web designing.
“This is another great stride that we are taking as a constituency to fight against drug and substance abuse by equipping people with computer skills and keeping them busy.
“The bus will be doing its rounds every day and it will be in one suburb for two hours and arrangements will be made on how it can be accessed in an orderly manner,” said Cde Modi.
He said the bus will be visiting all the suburbs in his constituency, starting with Makokoba.
“The world is slowly getting digital and we have to make sure that we also equip our youths. So, I will start at the grassroots level by teaching our children the basics of computer literacy, and once we see those who are interested in learning more skills, we will then introduce various programmes,” said Cde Modi.
“I am hopeful this will help curb the high rate of drug and substance abuse in the constituency as our youths will have something to do with their time.”
Residents, particularly youths could not hide the excitement as they got into the bus.
Ms Violin Dube, a resident at Sidojiwe Flats said the computer bus will give her an opportunity to acquire computer lessons.
“One good thing about Cde Modi is that he seeks to uplift everyone irrespective of their social standing given that the computer bus is a community facility,” she said.
Another resident Mr Lucky Siziba of Makokoba suburb commended Cde Modi for the gesture.
“We are grateful to Cde Modi for coming up with such a noble initiative which will benefit everyone. This is an opportunity for youths to try and search for possible jobs and apply online,” he said.
“I hope youths are going to use this opportunity to equip themselves. As youths, we often tend to ignore such opportunities.”
Last week, Cde Modi brought smiles to Sidojiwe Flats residents when he paid their $8 million electricity bill. The residents had gone for more than four months without electricity.
Zesa had switched off the two flats over the arrears and the one owing $65 million was switched off more than two years ago.
Residents were now living in fear of being mugged while school-going children no longer had time to do their homework or study at night. — @flora_sibanda
Source ZimSituation
