“We need the spirit of Kenneth Kaunda in this country, ‘One Zambia, One Nation’. This country I is now deeply divided along regional and tribal lines; that is wrong .We want our own ‘One Zimbabwe, One nation’ Harassing and intimidating people must stop; witch-hunting against people, must stop,”he said.

“Why are they harassing people. Some of them are overzealous. How do you arrest a whole university vice-chancellor over lies about a PhD? Some of these people are just idiots, they are ignoramuses,”said Mugabe.

The Mnangagwa administration last week arrested the University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor Levi Nyagura over Grace Mugabe’s PhD thesis.

Nyagura and another lecturer and former Sociology Department chairman, Claude Mararike, who reportedly was Grace’s supervisor, have been under investigation over how the degree was awarded.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint by 15 lecturers from the department, who claimed they never saw Grace’s study transcripts, progress reports or thesis. Grace was awarded the “earned” degree when her husband former President Robert Mugabe was also chancellor of all State universities.

UZ only published Grace’s thesis four years after she graduated against international best practices, but it showed material attributed to years after the degree was conferred.