By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
BULAWAYO – She stood at the podium not merely as a government official, but as a woman who remembers exactly what it feels like to walk into a room and be dismissed before she speaks.
ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera delivered a deeply personal and emotional keynote address at the International Girls in ICT Day commemoration at NUST on Friday, setting aside formal policy language to speak directly to the hearts of young girls as “mother to daughter.”
“I know the weight of being told technology is ‘not for girls,’” Mavetera confessed. “And I am here to tell you that weight is a lie—and together, we are throwing it off.”
The Minister, one of the few women at the cabinet level in Zimbabwe’s technology sector, described a voice that the world tries to plant inside young girls—a whisper that says they must be small, that they must wait, that technology belongs to someone else.
“Do not let that voice take root,” she implored. “You were not created to shrink. You were created to shine. The same mind that solves problems in your home, that navigates challenges with wisdom beyond your years, that dreams while you sleep—that mind is capable of building artificial intelligence that changes lives.”
Drawing on the wisdom of poet Maya Angelou, Mavetera told the gathered students: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”
She then pivoted to a direct challenge: “Girls, do not just survive this digital age—thrive in it. Bring your whole self. Bring your compassion as women, your resilience, your creativity. That is your superpower. AI without empathy is empty code. AI shaped by women who understand community, who understand care, who understand what it means to lift others—that is AI that heals and builds.”
The Minister also invoked the words of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, repeating slowly for emphasis: “I matter. I matter equally. Not ‘if only’, not ‘as long as’. I matter equally. Full stop.”
She told the girls that their value is not determined by anyone else’s measure, and urged them never to negotiate their worth. “You belong in laboratories. You belong in boardrooms.
“You belong in coding academies. You belong in innovation hubs. You belong in artificial intelligence research centres. You belong at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
In her most vulnerable moment, Mavetera revealed a personal truth she said has guided her leadership: “Every woman you admire, every leader you look up to, started exactly where you are—not knowing everything, not having every resource, but armed with one thing: the decision to begin.”
She closed the emotional segment by tying education to ancestral sacrifice. “Your education is not just for you. It is for your mother who sacrificed. It is for your grandmother who was told she could not.
“It is for the generation coming behind you who need a trail to follow. When you learn to code, you are not just writing lines—you are writing liberation.”
The audience, largely composed of young female students from across the country, responded with sustained applause, with several wiping tears as the Minister stepped back from the microphone.
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