Mugabe scholarship scheme hits another snag

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has failed to re-launch the presidential scholarship scheme despite an advertisement it ran last year.

The scheme benefits students studying at South African universities, which have already opened. No selections were made for new students while the old ones have been left in the dark.

More than 700 students studied last year at the University of Johannesburg, Wits University, Fort Hare, Monash and KwaZulu Natal under the scheme. They were told not to return in 2015 if their outstanding fees were not settled.OPC sources said there was no selection of students, who in the past have largely comprised children of ruling party members and politicians, for 2015 due to government's liquidity crunch.

The programme director, Chris Mushowe, flighted an advert last year urging prospective students to apply for 2015. "The executive director of the presidential scholarship programme invites applications for scholarships for the 2015 academic year which are tenable at the universities of South Africa," read the advert.

"The presidential scholarship programme targets able but disadvantaged students mainly from rural schools in remote districts of the country's provinces, intent on pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the universities in South Africa."

It indicated that the scheme would target prospective students for engineering, architectural sciences, health sciences, actuarial sciences, veterinary sciences, biological sciences, information technology, agriculture, accounting, law and youth development disciplines.

Prior to the June 2014 advert, the scheme was in limbo for three months as the government struggled to raise $1 million owed to the universities.

Addressing a press conference in March 2014, Mushowe said: "Because of lack of funding, we have stopped taking students until we are done with the current lot because we don't have enough funding for the project."

Students were facing difficulties paying fees, getting food and retaining their accommodation since the OPC had not released the needed money. Mushowe was not reachable for a comment. A private consulting firm that sources scholarships and has also been involved in the presidential scholarship, ZIMDEV, said it on its website that was finding it difficult to obtain information on whether the scheme would be available this year.

"This year we do not have any means to find out if the (presidential) scholarships are out as yet, but (we are advised) that the applications are now being taken. As with everything in Zimbabwe, better go and find out for yourself," noted ZIMDEV.

The economy has been in free fall since the 2013 general elections that Zanu-PF won with a contested landslide. Government has failed to pay civil servants on time, soldiers are going on long leave to reduce operational costs and many key public programmes have been shelved.

Recently, the government controlled Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) failed to pay for a stands at the ITB annual exhibition in Germany, even though officials travelled to Berlin. Officials at Zimbabwean embassies across the world have gone for long periods without salaries and government is struggling to pay their rentals.