BY NOXOLO DLAMINI
ZIMBABWE- Mbabane East Member of Parliament and Pan-African Parliament Committee Chairperson Hon. Welcome Dlamini has called for Zimbabwe’s Geo Pomona Waste Management facility to establish a partnership with the Kingdom of Eswatini following a study tour during Africa Skills Week 2026.
According to Spike Media, a Zimbabwean publication, Dlamini made the call after joining ministers and parliamentarians from across Africa who visited the facility in Harare on October 14, 2026, to learn how waste management can create jobs, develop technical skills and turn waste into valuable resources.
“What we saw here today at this great waste management facility is something that is beyond our imagination,” said Dlamini, who chairs the Pan-African Parliament’s Committee on Education, Culture, Tourism and Human Resources.
“Waste is actually the new gold,” he added.
Dlamini said waste management remained a major challenge in many African countries, noting that existing measures, including plastic bans, had not always been effective.
He was impressed by the facility’s waste collection monitoring systems, which enable management to track vehicles and confirm whether they reach households. The operation also monitors fuel consumption and maintains its own workshop and spare parts store.
Dlamini further welcomed the integration of people who previously lived on the dumpsite into the project, as well as the development of a sports facility built to FIFA standards.
“What the chairman told us here is something that we need to inculcate into our own respective countries. I would really love to see this even happening in Eswatini,” he said.
He called for Geo Pomona and Eswatini to sign a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
Geo Pomona Chairman Dilesh Nguwaya said the facility had transformed a site previously avoided by the public into a centre of attraction through investment and the contribution of local engineers.
The facility includes a waste sorting plant and a water treatment plant, with systems designed to improve waste management operations.
Nguwaya said the company intended to recruit local and African personnel to learn from Zimbabwean engineers before expanding the model across the continent.
“We are going to recruit local and also African people who are going to learn from our local engineers. Then we expand the same model to Africa as a continent,” he said.
The visit formed part of Africa Skills Week 2026, which runs from October 12 to 16 in Harare under the theme “Skills for Resilient and Competitive African Industries: From Training to Value Creation.”
The event is co-organised by the African Union Commission and the Government of Zimbabwe to promote skills development and industrial growth across Africa.
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(Courtesy Pic)
