The Sunday Mail
Cletus Mushanawani in MAFARARIKWA, Marange
Learners should take their studies seriously to fit in the future, which is likely to be technologically driven, the President has said.
In an interview after visiting the Taguta homestead in Mafararikwa to pay his condolences following the death of Johane Marange Apostolic Church leader, High Priest Noah Taguta, during the Easter holiday, the President described the late church leader as a close friend with whom he “shared views about the church and the country”.
The late church leader was 82.
“I came here quietly to meet the family. The late Saint Noah, the High Priest, was a very close friend of mine. We shared views about the church and the country. I was so saddened when I was informed that he had passed on,” he said after meeting the bereaved family and the new High Priest.
“During that time, there were a lot of people congregating here and I sent the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Cde Nokuthula Matsikenyere, to represent me at his burial. I decided that when everything was quiet, I will come and meet the family alone and the new High Priest. I will come back again and meet the church in July.”
The President handed over 40 new computers to St Noah High School.
Government, he said, would provide quality education to learners that will give their competitive skills and competencies.
“You must make sure that you are serious with your education. The future of this country will accommodate the girl-child and the boy-child who is smart. The child should be ICT (Information and Communication Technology) smart. If you do not use this opportunity, you will remain behind.
“My Government will do everything to make sure that you have good education and be competitive wherever you go on this planet. I want you boys and girls to be innovative. We must build our country ourselves. If you have ideas, we have what we call innovation hubs where you can take an idea in your mind and make it a product, and I will finance it. You should be serious from this level up to university and then go into the world well-prepared and being ICT smart because the future world is a technological world.”
The President said science was now driving the world and the country had to leverage on technology to be self-sufficient and productive.
“The world is now science, science and science. What you put on, you must produce. What you eat, you must produce. Whatever we want, the good roads we want, we must make them ourselves. If you want fish, you must produce it yourself. We should have our own factories. Aircraft we should produce ourselves. For computers, we already have a factory in Harare where young boys and girls are producing them.”
Under the stewardship of the late Mutumwa Taguta, Johane Marange Apostolic Church built the St Noah Group of Schools comprising St Noah One and Two, St Abel, St Zacharia, St Makaab, St Arnold One and Two.
In its quest to be self-sufficient, the church also has farms in Nyazura and Chipinge.
It also electrified Taguta Village and constructed a modern football pitch.
High Priest Noah Taguta, who was accorded a State-assisted funeral, was well-known for supporting the liberation struggle and was ordained as a priest in 1992.
As a passionate farmer, he delivered 4 000 tonnes of maize to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) last season.
He was buried at the summit of the sacred Chinyamukumba Mountain, where the church’s founder, Baba Johane Muchabaya Momberume, was also buried.
Born on March 20, 1940 in Chipfatsura Village, Marange, Mutumwa Taguta moved to Mafararikwa at the age of six for his primary education.
He is survived by 25 wives, 125 children, 300 grandchildren and 40 great grandchildren.
