Bulawayo Metropolitan governor Cain Mathema has commended the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) for opening an institute for development studies, saying this would spur growth in the whole country.
Mathema was speaking at the official opening of the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the university’s campus in Bulawayo last Thursday.
“We need a multiplicity of think-tanks concerned with all spheres of the country’s political, social and economic endeavour. Without think-tanks, we will forever remain a small country and a playground for others. Therefore IDS will help Zimbabwe become a highly industrialised economy,” he said.
Founder of the IDS, who is also the dean of the faculty of commerce at the university, Milton Webb Ndlovu said he was inspired to open the institute after realising there was deforestation in his rural home in Gwanda.
“Going home after 30 years, I realised I needed to contribute to development. The environment was defunct without maintenance resources.
Development studies should be pro-poor, so we want to evoke a culture of research in commerce, and because IDS has two branches, teaching and research, we are working on a journal entitled ‘Mopani IDS Journal’ which will be published late December or early January,” he said.
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Ndlovu said the institute had 160 students. Nust pro-Vice-Chancellor, Samson Sibanda said IDS would critically examine the role and efficacy of State policies and deepen access to quality higher education.
The Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Xin Shunkang who also attended the gathering, said: “Nust’s invigorate and thorough academic climate has pushed developmental frontiers of knowledge in science and technology and this has led to the opening of a new institute.”