Vice President Honourable Kembo Mohadi, who is also the National COVID-19 Inter-Ministerial Task Force Chairperson, visited Midlands State University on Thursday 18 June 2020 to assess efforts being made by the institution in the fight against COVID-19.
MSU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Victor N Muzvidziwa briefed the Vice President on developments and projects being undertaken by the University in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘In response to the concerted efforts by our Government to contain the COVID-19 contagion, we have set up a sanitiser production plant … The plant will have a capacity to produce up to 7000 litres of hand sanitizer per day once the filling and labelling and packaging sections of the plant are automated. Currently, the production capacity of the plant is at 5000 litres per day’, he said.
Speaking after touring the sanitiser production plant housed at University’s Incubation Hub Laboratory, Vice President Mohadi, commended Midlands State University and outlined Government’s commitment to supporting research and innovation in line with Education 5.0.
‘We don’t want to have universities that produce people who go out to look for jobs, we want universities that produce jobs. We want students who after leaving university create jobs. We are very much impressed by what is happening at Midlands State University,’ he said.
Vice President Mohadi noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is not entirely a curse, but also a kind of a blessing because the nation has woken up to do things on our own. ‘We want to be self-sufficient’, said the Vice President.
Members of the National COVID -19 Inter-Ministerial Task Force and the Midlands Provincial COVID -19 Task Force accompanied the Vice President on his visit.