Letters to the President:
By Wirimai Magugwa | Nyagura offered fake doctorates, professorship and posts at the University of Zimbabwe I would commend the President and Chancellor of State Universities for the recent suspension of Professor Levi Nyagura from the post of Vice Chancellor at the University of Zimbabwe on allegations of conferring a doctorate degree to the former First Lady Grace Mugabe, but I am at my wits end as to why the suspension with full benefits when all the evidence points otherwise. The case of the PhD is just one out of many acts of gross misconduct and maladministration by Nyagura. He should just be fired.
Nyagura, in a bid to secure favours and to please the former first family, offered Ntombizodwa G Marufu a doctorate degree in arts without the prerequisites, which would allow her to be called Dr Mugabe and this move was also meant to overshadow the influence of Dr Joyce Mujuru, who was graduating with a PhD from the same institution in the same year. Nyagura used his influence at the helm of this once esteemed state institution to bulldoze his way past the Department of Sociology, the Postgraduate Centre, The Faculty Higher Degrees Committee, the Academic Committee and the Senate to forge a doctorate for Grace. He deliberately flouted the laid out procedures to register for postgraduate studies, including doctorates, which were set up under the University of Zimbabwe Act 25:16 via Committees, Regulations and Statutes.
The set procedures require that any applicant for doctoral studies must first send a short proposal to the relevant department. Ntombizodwa was required to have contacted the Department of Sociology and should have submitted her proposal outlining her name, the proposed title of study, field of study, prospective supervisors and the required mode of study, whether part time or full time studies whose duration would have been 48 or 36 months, respectively. The department in question was then supposed to call for a Board Meeting to deliberate on her proposal to either approve or reject it. In the event that the department would have approved the proposal, it was then supposed to assign prospective supervisors with doctoral expertise in the fields stated by the applicant and notify her in writing, as well as forwarding the relevant documents and the signed board meeting minutes to the Postgraduate Centre.
These minutes are definitely not there, Claude Mararike does not have a PhD or any form of doctorate, neither is he an expert in whatever that fake degree was all about and he is a fake newspaper professor. The other so- called supervisor’s credentials also need serious verification.
Contrary to the arrogant comment made by Nyagura to the press, the Postgraduate Centre was only supposed to notify Grace that her proposal has been accepted by the department and should have advised her to fill in the postgraduate application forms, pay the required USD20 for application, attach the required copies of payment, birth certificate, National ID, Masters certificate (which she doesn’t have) or First Class Honours Degree in case of UZ graduates with recommendation from department (we all know that academics is not Ntombizodwa’s strength). The centre would have forwarded all these documents to the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee (FDHC) for further approval. None of these documents are available. In the same context as the departmental board, the FHDC would have taken minutes of the proceedings and made a recommendation to the Academic Committee which would then have given the final approval. There are no minutes or approvals from these 2 committees. The story does not end here.
During the first semester of her studies, Ntombizodwa was supposed to submit a detailed proposal of her intended study and during the course of her studies, she was supposed to submit what are called the Progress Reports which, depending on the discretion of the Academic Committee, are required twice or thrice during an academic year. These Progress Reports would show the student’s progress as outlined in her detailed proposal and would be signed by the academic supervisors and the student herself. The reports would then be used by the FDHC which convenes once every 2 to 3 months to monitor the student’s progress. They would take minutes and sign. Ntombizodwa’s documents are nowhere to be found, the Department of Sociology has already ascertained their inexistence. The staff at this department was threatened for over 2 weeks with job losses, horrendous life conditions and all sorts of harassment by this unpopular Nyagura who would pound at them whenever he had a chance to. However, the learned doctors at the Department of Sociology stood their ground and did not let the bully Nyagura drain the good name of the University into the Honey Sucker.
Back to the fake degree, after 3 to 4 years of rigorous study, and depending on Ntombizodwa’s progress, which we all know how it would have been, she was then supposed to submit a dissertation/thesis to the Department of Sociology which would then appoint at least 3 examiners: either 1 internal and 2 externals or 3 internal examiners for marking the work by Ntombizodwa. These examiners would be PhD holders of good academic reputation and expertise in the field of study of the candidate, with a more than 10 publications of note in peer-reviewed journals, books, conferences, etc., but not newspaper articles like some of the so-called professors whose names we have seen here and there.
The crux of the matter is that these examiners must not be the same as the student’s supervisors;otherwise there would be a bias in the evaluation. The marks would be ratified at the department. Well, in the case with our unpopular Ntombi, Nyagura, Claude and company, this cabal must have evaluated the fake thesis by taking note of who ate more oranges than the others somewhere down in Mazoe. There was no thesis submitted to the department in 2014 or anytime afterwards. No minutes. Everyone at that department was just as shocked as you are when Ntombi’s name was called at the 2014 UZ Graduation
Ceremony. This was the first time that everyone besides Nyagura’s gang knew that Grace Mugabe had been studying at the University of Zimbabwe for a PhD. Grace, the then First Lady. Grace Mugabe or Ntombizodwa G Marufu, whatever name suits her, does not have a PhD in Sociology, period.
After a public outcry, a copy of the so-called Grace’s PhD was hurriedly made available online. The Queen’s language is a challenge to most of us, but it does not deserve the level of criminality committed against it in the so-called doctoral thesis. The grammatical errors, syntax, construction of sentences, the merits of the study, the dates and references makes the document look like it was written by a typist in a hurry to capture shorthand minutes of a meeting. A quick search on Google on some of the material in that document would reveal unpardonable percentages of plagiarism. In academia, this is a very serious
act which attracts an academic death penalty. Grace could not have graduated with a PhD, even if w assume that she wrote the thesis, which she did not. Nyagura abused the office of Vice Chancellor.
The case of Ntombi is like the tip of an iceberg, that very one that sank the Titanic. Nyagura was now feeling homely and cozy with his behavior of trampling the University of Zimbabwe Act, the Constitution and everyone under his feet. He had been appointing friends and associates to various posts which they do not deserve and giving them titles they do not merit. Professor Mararike, Professor Murwira, Professor Mashiri, etc. It is no wonder why the country with so many professors still cannot find common solutions to common problems. Not surprisingly, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education was jumping around saying Nyagura had not been suspended and the entire mumble jumble that came with it.
Mr. Murwira used to work in some government department and later joined the University of Zimbabwe as Dr Murwira. He made his way up by putting too much pretext and connivance with his then boss Nyagura which led to the conspiracy that Geography was a science of everything from medicine to mining to agriculture to satellites and that every other faculty should fall under him and suddenly he was made a professor. The national presidency and the country should not be ill fed into believing that everything can be sensibly solved in a remote way via satellites. This connivance by the people who are
supposed to forge the way forward for national development based on education and research is an offense against the Constitution and the will of the people and students who enroll at such institutions; it is a crime against humanity.
Everyone who tries to make sense of Nyagura’s actions would face the axe. Highly qualified administrative and academic staff from departments of agriculture, surveying, mining and other departments lost their jobs over various hatched plans for personal grandeur. The Bursar, who is part of top university administration, was recently dismissed without notice.
This one goes for the worst. Besides having people with good qualifications, Nyagura placed another of his close friends with a fake degree as head of 2 departments that are crucial to the manpower development in mining and manufacturing related issues within Zimbabwe: the Department of Mining Engineering and the Department of Metallurgy. His name is Kudzai Musiwa. Musiwa claims to have a BSc Geology degree from University of Luton obtained in 1993 (which the said University cannot ascertain), a PGrad Cert (Graz, Austria) (no year), PGrad dipMex (ITC-Netherlands) 1996 and an MPhil Environmental (UZ) 2004. All these qualifications need to be verified.
During the period Musiwa claim to have obtained the geology degree, he was working at the Department of Geology, University of Zimbabwe as a Technician and did not even have a pass in Ordinary Level Mathematics.
Surprisingly, to be employed as a security guard at UZ one needs 5 O Levels including Mathematics and English. The chairperson at the Geology Department stated that Musiwa could not teach any course within that department because he does not have a first degree required to teach in that department and this led to the department firing him. That is when Nyagura made Musiwa the head of mining and metallurgy. It has also been established that this has brought very serious tensions between the said departments which naturally should be working in coordination.
The matter concerning this virtually unknown PhD holder who overtook the learned Professor Lovemore Madhuku to the post of Dean of Law is another scandal. We might not be happy with Professor Madhuku on the political arena but that man is indeed a professor, not from newspaper articles, but with all merits.
Most probably his choice of political views and alignment has shadowed his general acceptance but that’s what makes him tick. Then suddenly someone from nowhere is appointed ahead of him. I have said enough about people’s academic degrees for now, otherwise it will seem as if half of the university staff has fake qualifications. Neither am I implying the contrary.
I hope that the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Paul Mapfumo will not follow in Nyagura’s steps, should he lend the post. In the same spirit, Professor Madhuku should be rewarded accordingly for his efforts both in education and the country; the PVC post will be a good start.
The burden is now on you to give the people of this country the feedback they deserve and to correct what needs to be corrected.