The University of Zimbabwe’s Vice Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura has attacked lecturers in the Department of Sociology who exposed Grace Mugabe’s PhD.
Academics say Nyagura is not shielding Grace Mugabe alone, as there are many corrupt ZANU PF officials who were given fake degrees at the institution. Dr Pedzisayi Ruhanya wrote on his portal:
“The people who wrote Grace’s ‘PhD Thesis’ should have been on drugs. They use 2016 and 2017 citations in a 2014 authored dissertation. Colleagues Kindly take some time to read this greatest academic fraud in history. God have mercy! There is no fraud that beats this!”
He also posted on Wednesday saying, “where is Killer Zivhu, one among a few delusional elements from Masvingo who joined Grace Mugabe to acquire a bogus PhD; his is from some bogus organisation in Avondale called International Philanthropy Institute? The last days of Mugabe rule, hey!”
State media report: The lecturers challenged the awarding of a doctorate to former First Lady Grace Mugabe, saying they were “ignorant Messrs and doctors” with no academic capacity to supervise a PhD student.In an interview with The Herald yesterday on demands by 10 lecturers for the university to revoke Mrs Mugabe’s PhD, Prof Nyagura said PhD students were supervised by the post-graduate centre and not a teaching department. “There is no way that they could have supervised the candidate because a doctorate is not done by a teaching department. It is done by a post-graduate centre,” said Prof Nyagura.
He dismissed allegations that the thesis was not in the library until this year. Prof Nyagura claimed the thesis was deposited at the university library in 2014. “Those are all lies. The thesis has always been in the library since 2014,” he said. Prof Nyagura said Mrs Mugabe’s thesis was supervised by two professors, who also supervised former Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Prof Nyagura said the university was ready to defend its position should the lecturers consider taking a legal route. Earlier in the year, 10 lecturers from the department of sociology challenged Prof Nyagura to revoke and nullify Mrs Mugabe’s doctorate arguing that it was awarded unprocedurally. Supervised by Professor Claude Mararike, Mrs Mugabe graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Social Studies in September 2014.
Through their lawyer Ms Fiona Iliff from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the lectures said they were shocked to hear that Mrs Mugabe had been awarded a doctorate from their department when they never saw her application, acceptance letter, supervision and even awarding of the degree.
“The Sociology Department Board has never approved anything in respect of the candidate’s research or thesis. The members of the Sociology Department Board were shocked at the news that the candidate was awarded the degree by the Sociology Department. All the requisite procedures were not followed in toto, and there was complete disregard of university rules, processes and procedures,” said the lectures in their letter of concern dated January 29 2018 to the University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura.
The 10 lecturers are: Prof Rudo Gaidzanwa, Drs Sandra Bhatasara, Julius Musevenzi, Fenton Ruparanganda, Gutsa, Mandizadza, Sadomba, Mate and Messrs Nelson Muparamoto and T Chevo. The lecturers further alleged that as at January 8 2018, Mrs Mugabe’s thesis was not in the university library.
“All things considered, the awarding of the degree under such circumstances was unethical, unprofessional, and unprocedural, as the quality of the final product was not controlled by qualified professionals if at all any research was conducted to warrant conferment of such a degree. The awarding of the degree constitutes academic corruption and criminal abuse of office in terms of section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) on the part of anyone implicated in awarding the degree at the University.”
With regards to Professor Mararike’s appointment, the lecturers alleged that he was appointed without their consultation as stipulated in the ordinance regulations. They said Prof Mararike whom they allege was Mrs Mugabe’s supervisor was not a suitable candidate to act as chairperson of the Sociology department board since he was on a temporary contract at the university.
“Your appointment of Professor C. Mararike was in breach of sections 4.2 and 4.7 of ordinance number 25 of the University of Zimbabwe, in that no consultation with members of the Sociology department board was ever done,” alleged the lecturers. Sources close to Mrs Mugabe’s PhD thesis saga claim that the department of Sociology has handled many other PhD students.
They said in the event that the department lacked competences in line with the student’s thesis, it is the department which seeks supervisors from other departments contrary to what transpired in Ms Mugabe’s doctorate. The sources also dismissed Prof Nyagura’s claims that no one in the department was qualified to hold the position of acting chairperson saying there was a full professor and four Doctors.
In years gone by, any degree from UCZ was a respected tertiary qualification – globally.
Doctors, Lawyers, Geologists, Engineers, etcetera, who gained their degrees from UCZ were respected as being equal to their peers at other tertiary institutions globally.
Those properly qualified graduates now have their own legitimate qualifications put into question and doubt….. it is an outrageous scandal.
– The facts MUST be ascertained, and
– The culprits involved MUST be sacked & publicly denounced, and
– The graduates “benefiting” from this academic fraud MUST similarly be denounced and any qualifications publicly annulled.
Do all this AND MORE, and the UCZ just MIGHT recover its reputation and dignity, maybe.
Do nothing and, worse, allow cover-up, and ALL DEGREES ever issued by UCZ become effectively trashed. One cannot stress just how serious an issue this is – affecting as it does the academic integrity of higher learning in Zimbabwe.
One thing the Managing Academics responsible for this seem unable to understand, is that INTEGRITY is the one commodity money and favour cannot buy. Whoever appointed these goonish fraudsters in the first place should similarly be outed, named, and shamed.
Pamberi Zimbabwe !
Please say what you have evidance of. Things has to be put straight now while we have freedom to correct those errors
Nyagura defending him self for nothing he should Go Mhani the case is very clear he must follow bob and Gire immediately..
Your lack of reasoning is apalling. Who in their right frame of mind would do such a treasonous act against the mighty Mugabes back then? The fact that they are standing up now should be applauded. Its never too late to correct our wrongs. This corrupt chap Nyagura should be put through a disciplinary process and dumped forthwith.
The problem is Nyagura, he didn’t follow proper UZ laid procedures coz he wanted to please first family at the expense of UZ procedures. Nyagura should be fired, Grace PhD be withdrawn to restore UZ integrity
One thing is abundantly clear to everybody with a bit of common sense: Grace and Joice Political Moron Mujuru do not have the brains to be PhDs–very simple–just listening to these two frauds you can just tell kuti even degree chairo havana vanhu ava–its obvious!!
The issue here is credebility. When an institution like the UZ issues fake post graduate qualifications there is a greater possibility that the scam goes deeper into other lesser qualifications. UZ qualifications enjoyed world wide recognition and might now because of this fiasco be viewed with suspicion. So, in reality Mrs Grace Mugabe’s fake doctorate affects everybody who holds a UZ qualification. Question is how far back does this nonsense go? We need a commission of enquiry to put the awarding of fake qualifications to rest.
There are some personalities battles raging on at UZ, Mrs G Mugabe is being used as a proxy here.
If Mrs G Mugabe graduated in 2014, one wonders what these lecturers who attack her thesis were doing at UZ. They should have resigned on ethical grounds if they were not happy. There is something fish here. It seems they are shooting down anyone from Nyagura to Mararike.
True. What is our worry. Anzi atiche here ku UZ kwacho