Opinion / Letters
Lies from BUSE in their piblicity face saving stunt
29 Jan 2018 at 07:20hrs | Views
The Editor,
I have read a number of the exposes that have been written by a lot of your correspondents on the goings-on at Bindura University of Science Education. While a lot of the stuff that was written on the Vice Chancellor is true apart from a few blunders like spellings of names of persons at the University, I was so miffed, in fact, utterly annoyed by the Director of Protocol and Public Relations' (Mr Gutura) attempts at distorting the facts with regards to the January 2018 Block release programme that I have taken it upon myself to join the bandwagon of truth disseminators and encourage him not to sing for his supper in such a disreputable and nauseating way. In the mainstream press, the Director sought to discredit the letter that was written by the disgruntled student (among others) through a press release that should itself be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
First, the Director in his press release alluded to the fact that "there was a challenge with some classes of the faculty of commerce (sic) between teaching staff and management attributable to communication breakdown at the beginning of the Block." I will address the Director on this point. The reason why there were disruptions was not because of some communication breakdown as you deliberately chose to misinform the public. You know very well that the reason was lecturers had not been paid their block release dues, with some payments dating as far back as 2016. You also know that you are lying in shifting the blame on committees when the decision not to pay has always been made by Professor Edias Mwenje (I hope I spelt the not common forename properly) alone. Even the Bursar had no hand in the payments, and you know that. Distorting facts is not only dishonourable but shameful. Even as I write, the "amicable" solution to that challenge has not seen all lecturers who were owed being paid even that half payment that you paid those who had refused to teach outright.
Second, if as you say you place great emphasis on issues of quality assurance why did that Purchasing and Supply class do some crash block session in two days in between examinations when the lecturer refused to teach the Block class due to the refusal to pay him by the Vice Chancellor? Is conducting a six day block module in two days what you term quality? The regulations stipulate that a candidate should have scored at least 40% of the total coursework component for them to be allowed to write the final examination. These students all wrote the final examination before doing the coursework component when the Vice Chancellor brought in a substitute lecturer from outside the University. Why didn't you say that in your disrespectable attempt at sanitizing the evils being done? In addition, if you are driven by quality why did you not solve what you chose to refer to as communication breakdown before inviting the students for the Block session?
Third, your idea of student centeredness is so mind-boggling and downright ludicrous as to be taken seriously. You mean letting students come and loiter around the campus while you are having your communication breakdown exemplifies student centeredness? The High Court keeps records of cases heard there for all to see. Is it not true that the first case of the many students who were stopped midway in the semester due to a regulation that said no student would be allowed to proceed to their final part before they are done with Part One courses was heard at the High Court in Masvingo? This was in spite of the fact that the students had not signed for this regulation as well as the fact that the University had registered these students and given them student ID cards and had even accepted the students' fees. Maybe, you think because Prof edias can deceive you and your not so effective University Council, you can deceive the whole world. Newsflash! You can fool some people all the time but you can't fool all the people all the time. Your attempt at playing spin doctor is enervated. Yes, Professor Edias Mwenje made that decision alone, as he does 99.99% of the time. It was in a Senate meeting which I was in when the young student leader Nigel (you remember him) pleaded with him, raising the facts above on the students, and he cruelly refused to allow that concession.
If you remember even Mr T. Katsinde (the then Chairman of Social Sciences) tried to knock some sense into Prof Edias' head reminding him that the students may end up going to court with the matter and he refused to listen as he always does. You may think that you can hide behind a finger, but unfortunately you will always be exposed. That was not a committee decision. That was Prof Edias' sole decision. Prof Edias is not a committee in case you had that twisted. Committees deliberate on issues and vote on issues. I hope Prof Edias will soon grow up and learn to take responsibility for his disreputable conduct instead of hiding behind collective responsibility for errors of judgement he would have committed individually. I am sure he is even lying about who brought his wife without an interview to you. Just a word of advice to you: do not defend what you don't know without verifying the facts first. Otherwise, you will be left with egg on the face.
Fourth, your defence of the blatant wrongs being done appears to me like an attempt to ignore the important point raised by the student who complained to the Minister via Bulawayo 24. I am solidly behind that student's call for a forensic audit to be done on the Block release programmes. This should be done by the Ministry as I do not think the University Council is morally qualified to do that since they have not brought Prof Edias to account for all the ills he is doing at the University and the Council Chairman has never even bothered to meet the staff in spite of the many complaints. Some of us don't even know him.
Fifth, if Prof Edias has managed to make so many "enemies" in so short a time, is it not wise for him to examine himself and see why his conduct leaves him with so many "enemies". In that examination process, encourage him to pay those that the University owes money, starting with the lecturers he left out in the last half payments because they had not taken a hard line stance of refusing to teach like those he then paid. Also advise him to throw his workload formula back into the dumpsite from which he picked it up. People work for money not for a formula.
Sixth, when defending something, you could reveal what you are saying is no true and say out the truth. I know you are so used to eulogizing everything that Prof Edias does on that busemail to nauseating levels and in the process have not learnt how to sift through facts from fables. It is not your fault Mr Gutura, that is what happens to everyone who is given a job like yours by people with an overinflated ego though low on delivery and wisdom.
Seventh, was it a committee decision to employ that Romeo (Prof Edias' nephew) in your Department? This guy joined as a student on attachment and was being paid while his colleague from the same University was not. He is still in your Department way beyond (is it not three years now) any student on attachment has ever stayed with the University. Are these the committee decisions you were referring to?
In closing, Mr Gutura, do not defend wrong deeds. We know that Zimbabwe presently does not deal with corruption but in future the country may do so and you would not want then to be hauled to the then real anti-corruption body and courts for crimes you did not personally commit. When people make mistakes, they should learn to apologize and learn from their mistakes as opposed to trying to cover up their mistakes. If at all there is a Council at BUSE, I hope you will learn a thing or two from what these people who write about these goings on have to say. Now we learn that Prof Edias' errors in judgment are the responsibilities of committees even when the committees tried to steer him to do the right thing and he remained adamant. To the Bulawayo 24 team, I say: good job! I salute you! You are the sole oasis in a desert of corruption! You are true heroes! Keep up the good job! This letter marks my own entrance into the bandwagon of those who will arrest corruption in this country starting with exposing Edias Mwenje!
--------
Wisdom Mupositori <wmpositori@gmail.com
I have read a number of the exposes that have been written by a lot of your correspondents on the goings-on at Bindura University of Science Education. While a lot of the stuff that was written on the Vice Chancellor is true apart from a few blunders like spellings of names of persons at the University, I was so miffed, in fact, utterly annoyed by the Director of Protocol and Public Relations' (Mr Gutura) attempts at distorting the facts with regards to the January 2018 Block release programme that I have taken it upon myself to join the bandwagon of truth disseminators and encourage him not to sing for his supper in such a disreputable and nauseating way. In the mainstream press, the Director sought to discredit the letter that was written by the disgruntled student (among others) through a press release that should itself be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
First, the Director in his press release alluded to the fact that "there was a challenge with some classes of the faculty of commerce (sic) between teaching staff and management attributable to communication breakdown at the beginning of the Block." I will address the Director on this point. The reason why there were disruptions was not because of some communication breakdown as you deliberately chose to misinform the public. You know very well that the reason was lecturers had not been paid their block release dues, with some payments dating as far back as 2016. You also know that you are lying in shifting the blame on committees when the decision not to pay has always been made by Professor Edias Mwenje (I hope I spelt the not common forename properly) alone. Even the Bursar had no hand in the payments, and you know that. Distorting facts is not only dishonourable but shameful. Even as I write, the "amicable" solution to that challenge has not seen all lecturers who were owed being paid even that half payment that you paid those who had refused to teach outright.
Second, if as you say you place great emphasis on issues of quality assurance why did that Purchasing and Supply class do some crash block session in two days in between examinations when the lecturer refused to teach the Block class due to the refusal to pay him by the Vice Chancellor? Is conducting a six day block module in two days what you term quality? The regulations stipulate that a candidate should have scored at least 40% of the total coursework component for them to be allowed to write the final examination. These students all wrote the final examination before doing the coursework component when the Vice Chancellor brought in a substitute lecturer from outside the University. Why didn't you say that in your disrespectable attempt at sanitizing the evils being done? In addition, if you are driven by quality why did you not solve what you chose to refer to as communication breakdown before inviting the students for the Block session?
Third, your idea of student centeredness is so mind-boggling and downright ludicrous as to be taken seriously. You mean letting students come and loiter around the campus while you are having your communication breakdown exemplifies student centeredness? The High Court keeps records of cases heard there for all to see. Is it not true that the first case of the many students who were stopped midway in the semester due to a regulation that said no student would be allowed to proceed to their final part before they are done with Part One courses was heard at the High Court in Masvingo? This was in spite of the fact that the students had not signed for this regulation as well as the fact that the University had registered these students and given them student ID cards and had even accepted the students' fees. Maybe, you think because Prof edias can deceive you and your not so effective University Council, you can deceive the whole world. Newsflash! You can fool some people all the time but you can't fool all the people all the time. Your attempt at playing spin doctor is enervated. Yes, Professor Edias Mwenje made that decision alone, as he does 99.99% of the time. It was in a Senate meeting which I was in when the young student leader Nigel (you remember him) pleaded with him, raising the facts above on the students, and he cruelly refused to allow that concession.
If you remember even Mr T. Katsinde (the then Chairman of Social Sciences) tried to knock some sense into Prof Edias' head reminding him that the students may end up going to court with the matter and he refused to listen as he always does. You may think that you can hide behind a finger, but unfortunately you will always be exposed. That was not a committee decision. That was Prof Edias' sole decision. Prof Edias is not a committee in case you had that twisted. Committees deliberate on issues and vote on issues. I hope Prof Edias will soon grow up and learn to take responsibility for his disreputable conduct instead of hiding behind collective responsibility for errors of judgement he would have committed individually. I am sure he is even lying about who brought his wife without an interview to you. Just a word of advice to you: do not defend what you don't know without verifying the facts first. Otherwise, you will be left with egg on the face.
Fourth, your defence of the blatant wrongs being done appears to me like an attempt to ignore the important point raised by the student who complained to the Minister via Bulawayo 24. I am solidly behind that student's call for a forensic audit to be done on the Block release programmes. This should be done by the Ministry as I do not think the University Council is morally qualified to do that since they have not brought Prof Edias to account for all the ills he is doing at the University and the Council Chairman has never even bothered to meet the staff in spite of the many complaints. Some of us don't even know him.
Fifth, if Prof Edias has managed to make so many "enemies" in so short a time, is it not wise for him to examine himself and see why his conduct leaves him with so many "enemies". In that examination process, encourage him to pay those that the University owes money, starting with the lecturers he left out in the last half payments because they had not taken a hard line stance of refusing to teach like those he then paid. Also advise him to throw his workload formula back into the dumpsite from which he picked it up. People work for money not for a formula.
Sixth, when defending something, you could reveal what you are saying is no true and say out the truth. I know you are so used to eulogizing everything that Prof Edias does on that busemail to nauseating levels and in the process have not learnt how to sift through facts from fables. It is not your fault Mr Gutura, that is what happens to everyone who is given a job like yours by people with an overinflated ego though low on delivery and wisdom.
Seventh, was it a committee decision to employ that Romeo (Prof Edias' nephew) in your Department? This guy joined as a student on attachment and was being paid while his colleague from the same University was not. He is still in your Department way beyond (is it not three years now) any student on attachment has ever stayed with the University. Are these the committee decisions you were referring to?
In closing, Mr Gutura, do not defend wrong deeds. We know that Zimbabwe presently does not deal with corruption but in future the country may do so and you would not want then to be hauled to the then real anti-corruption body and courts for crimes you did not personally commit. When people make mistakes, they should learn to apologize and learn from their mistakes as opposed to trying to cover up their mistakes. If at all there is a Council at BUSE, I hope you will learn a thing or two from what these people who write about these goings on have to say. Now we learn that Prof Edias' errors in judgment are the responsibilities of committees even when the committees tried to steer him to do the right thing and he remained adamant. To the Bulawayo 24 team, I say: good job! I salute you! You are the sole oasis in a desert of corruption! You are true heroes! Keep up the good job! This letter marks my own entrance into the bandwagon of those who will arrest corruption in this country starting with exposing Edias Mwenje!
--------
Wisdom Mupositori <wmpositori@gmail.com
Source - Wisdom Mupositori
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