The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, August 3, 1991 — The Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund has given $2 million to the Bulawayo Polytechnic Division of Plastics and Rubber Technology to enable it to acquire modern equipment for its laboratories, the head of division, Cde Gratian Macharaka, told industrialists yesterday.

At a meeting with leading plastics and rubber manufacturers to rationalise the plastics and rubber technology course syllabus, Cde Macharaka said the division would use the grant to acquire special testing and qualification control equipment.

The division had relied on testing equipment from Matopo Research Station but this was withdrawn in 1987.

Cde Macharaka told the industrialists that his division would also move to a new and bigger laboratory as the present one was not properly ventilated.

A number of companies had given equipment to the division to enable students to get practical knowledge before being sent on attachment and the division had been promised an extruder, a machine used for moulding plastic products and a rheometer for measuring the properties of rubber products.

Cde Macharaka appealed to the industrialists to assist the division with books and raw materials which could not be obtained because of the small grant the division received. He also appealed to companies to provide part-time lecturers as his division faced a critical staff shortage.