Has anyone ever heard of Saith Technologies? To be honest, I hadn’t until today. Tomorrow (Tuesday 21 July), the company will hold an open day to showcase technologies that they have been working on at the Bluffhill Industrial Park in Harare.
Saith Technologies has been private all along and they have a very limited web presence with no website to talk about (unless under a different name).
What caught our attention, however, is how Saith Technologies has promised to display a series of world-class technologies that usually capture the public’s attention (not just in Zimbabwe but worldwide).
Included in their line-up is a locally produced drone (Yes, drone!), a locally produced electric car, road safety products, industrial technologies and what they term the “green power machine” which produces power using environmentally friendly technology.
We are very excited about this event and we hope that indeed the products will turn out to be what the hype says they are. Of particular interest is the drone. We had, for a long time, been trying to understand why the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe was talking so much about drones and drone licences. Now we believe this could be where some of the pressure was coming from.
Of course, they have been drones featured several times in Zimbabwe. Swiss Jet has had commercial drones since 2013, Zimbabwe and Zambia anti-poaching drones (The Green Line foundation project), the Telecel drag race cameras and the Scout Aerial safari drones that took pictures and videos of wildlife at Matopos. With some being manufactured locally, it may turn out that we are not as far off from the rest of the world as we think.
Another project that is set to be showcased tomorrow is the electric car. It’s another interesting development considering the scarcity of energy and power in Africa. Besides, this could be a team that has been enterprising enough to use open-source Tesla technology.
Image Credit: modernfarmer.com
19 comments
The creation of an electric car is really welcome. However, this needs to be backed up by a battery manufacturing facility which is linked to the several Lithium ion mines in the country. Zimbabwe has got one of the biggest Lithium reserves in the world. If you google it you will see what we are sitting on. That chain alone can create a high impact on employment creation and supporting the electric car’s most critical component. Such type of projects need to be promoted as an integrated set despite isolated ownership structures of the various components. Add that to the massive Natural gas reserves in the country whose condensate can be used for production of plastic parts that help in manufacturing of the car parts etc. If the idea remains isolated it will not get the required full support from its country of origin. I don’t see why govt may refuse to provide sovereign guarantees for the setting up of this industry chain if properly presented to them. Employment creation, increased tax revenue, sustainable export to support the Z$ if it ever shows up again, first mover advantage in the region on that industry, ignition of new support industries which may not necessarily be focused on the car as the only market (for instance, if a good battery factory springs up it will not only make car batteries- telecoms batteries are a massive market on their own etc; while for natural gas the other bi-products which are not plastic may have an even bigger market as natural gas comes with ammonium which is used for fertiliser production etc.)
Technology, apart from being a tool for direct use, can be used to ignite the creation of other industries. MBA student. Go for it. A thought on your dessertation topic. Good luck to this guys. Israel primarily grew from this type of thing. We love it.
if only we had MORE ppl with your mindset or those who tolerate it on the leadership frontline we possibly wldnt be in this quagmire..Zimbabwe is dying nenyota makumbo ari mumvura
Thanks for the article.
Would appreciate to know the venue
When you say “locally produced”, are these products being locally manufactured or being locally assembled?
Im asking because we once got excite with Nhava netbook http://www.techzim.co.zw/2011/03/more-on-nhava/
We are good at generating excitement.
God is great
Locally assembled and produced are different. Techzim take a breath.
I have this anxiety and excitement. Wait! Thats what I get before every election. Disappointment awaits on the other side!!!
“Locally produced?” I was bound to ask the same question. I doubt any of the components are “manufactured” locally, not even the simplest drone rotors.. They simply got kits via Alibaba & voila! a drone!
This is a great achievement and we should encourage it. How many people visited Alibaba to wind up buying toothpicks? And you belittle such great work by a Zimbabwean? Can you assemble a pen? Keep it up Saith!
even cars being assembled at Willovale Motor Industries the kits are coming from outdsiide the country so whats wrong about assembling drones with kits from outside. eventually those components will have to be manufactured locally in the long term. this is a marvellous initiative to say the least. well done guys keep it up and God bless your adventures.
for how long has Willowvale Motors been assembling cars in zim?Have they started manufacturing the components here? Lets just be realistic. We have companies like Astro Mobile who pretend to be manufacturing phones in Zim but in reality they are just rebranding Chinise products. What makes these drones to be called Locally manufactured?
To all the critics, do you know that Apple has only the concepts n prototype but everything else was being done in China.
So what’s bad about it if one of our own genius can import certain parts for assembling locally.
Let him continue with the project. If you are not careful anoswera aita Billionaire kuSilicon valley while you continue importing second hand Japanese cars.
This iz so awesome to know a private firm like Saith technology existed in Zimbabwe.. Their technologies just proves to the whole world wat we made of as Zimbabweans and im loving this especially the drone and helicopter awesome
Good people, please don’t hate such a noble idea. this is what we need for the betterment of our economy. think of job creation, taxes, general economic upliftment. i bet most of you want to work for big companies like Econet, Delta etc, but also they are importing their major raw materials from abroad. i do not see anything wrong with assemblying components to make a car, or helicopter. what i see is job creation, and that is what a lot of us are all after – jobs!!!
Keep up the good work Saith Tech. Let us all be happy for one of our fellow Zimbabweans for such an endeavour.
TechZim journalists, we expect verifiable technical info of this company, executives, plans etc so that the story becomes more credible instead of just “vapourware”.
If you check out the Lily drone launched in USA ($600) 2 months ago; the Toyota Mirai (Hydrogen gas fuel@ US$58k) and Tesla & Google electric cars – there is enough info on R&D, safety tests, pilots, progress, pre-order info, projected sales figures etc showing that there is a valid business case behind the idea.
Why does SAITH have no internet presence?
Check out the Lily Drone camera demo at the youtube link:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWrApA8oRbI
Check out Toyota’s new Hydrogen fuel car at:-
https://click.mail.advantagebusinessmedia.com/?qs=fb1c8c092f0e76b202f59380d9d6187b087cf36beba26addb1e283eea2ba1b11
If SAITH would like to be a credible technology company, this type of info dissemination will surely help them and their potential customers.
true to the last word .if you are sure of your work, make it credible so people may understand you . where you are from . not that you are here with a ten year worth of technology with no history. pliz pliz have respect for your fellow man
Guys, VW in South Africa dose not manufacture engines for there cars all they do is mold the body and the rest comes from German but the country is making billions form that industry. Keep it up man wish I had that kind of mind to start something so big and promissing.
Congratulation to these guys.We pray our african gorvements and prive people to patronize these goods.There is one of these inventors in Ghana (osofo kantaka),it will be can collaborate and share ideas.
I really loved this however some more light is required. We need see our army hitting hard with these drones. We need see a lot of exports of these products but please lets start embracing them locally.