Harare– In an unconventional start to a certificate handover ceremony, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Hon. Tatenda Mavetera, opened not with congratulations but with a pointed question to graduates: “Who do you believe you are?”

The question, posed on 13 April 2026 at the Ministry’s Boardroom, was the philosophical anchor of a ceremony marking the first cohort of a new cybersecurity training partnership between Redzone Cyberzim and the Russian Federation – a programme the Minister said is designed to build homegrown digital defence capability at no cost to students.

“The most powerful cybersecurity tool you will ever deploy is not a firewall, not an intrusion detection system, not a Security Information and Event Management platform,” Mavetera told the 72 graduates. “It is a mind that believes, without reservation, that it is capable, prepared, and worthy of the responsibility it carries.”

The programme drew 3,463 registrations, with 2,499 students actively engaged against an ultimate target of 10,000 Zimbabweans. One hundred and fifty-eight students entered the PRO ranking, indicating excellence, and the average success rate in test assignments stood at 85 percent.

Mavetera said nine students from the cohort have been identified and are being groomed as future mentors. “Nine becomes eighteen. Eighteen becomes one hundred. One hundred becomes a generation of homegrown cybersecurity educators who will never need to be replaced by external expertise,” she said.

The Minister framed the initiative within President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s national doctrine: “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo” (a nation is built by its own people). She warned that Zimbabwe’s accelerating digital transformation – including digitised government services, financial inclusion expansion, and smart infrastructure – comes with an expanding vulnerability to cyberthreats.

“Ransomware groups have paralysed hospitals. Nation-state actors have disrupted critical services. Criminal syndicates have extracted hundreds of millions from financial systems across the continent. Zimbabwe is not exempt,” she said.

The programme has already earned three nominations at the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards 2025 – for Best Non-Profit Cybersecurity Team, Best Cybersecurity Product, and Customer Service Initiative of the Year.

Mavetera extended formal gratitude to the Russian Federation for the partnership and to Redzone Cyberzim CEO Mr. Samir Popatlal for helping participants “see themselves differently.”

Addressing the graduates directly, she said: “Do not leave this room and shrink back into uncertainty. You are not a footnote in Zimbabwe’s cybersecurity story. You are 72 of its first sentences. And the chapter is only beginning.”

The training, covering threat intelligence, network security, incident response and defensive architectures, is offered at no cost to any Zimbabwean regardless of location or economic background.