Grace Mugabe, Bring Back Our PhD Now!

Of all the scandals that ever rocked Zimbabwe, this PhD scandal by President Mugabe and his shopaholic wife raises eyebrows at a global scale. The public has spoken and an outcry keeps pouring in. Mugabe has Grace Mugabe never studied for this PhD. She never had any Master's degree, let alone any iota of proof that she had even gotten a faculty team to assess and weigh her credentials before she demanded a PhD. Just a phone call to the senate or council got her what she wanted. Just like that.

Grace Mugabe used a pillow talk discussion with her husband Chancellor/President and demanded that she deserved a PhD. She assumed that even if people would raise eyebrows, docile and passive Zimbabweans who absorb anything at any cost as they would simply grumble in their cars with rolled up windows or bedrooms and toilets and let the situation go away. She assumed even more wrongly that it would be a week or so before the story would die a natural death. She was wrong! Even a century will not make this scandal fade. The pressure is actually mounting and adds to the ZANU PF crisis because there is more to the wrongs being committed to the nation at large. People are angry and hungry. Just the politicians are wining and dining as they travel like Vasco da Gama and shop like Emelda Marcos.

The world has spoken. Zimbabwe academics from all parts of the world have also spoken. Grace Mugabe never went to school. Even her public statements are empty hot air. She needs a speech writer, counselor and a mentor because she is empty-headed. She has a certificate in typing. She never even had that degree that she claims she acquired in Mandarin. I have studied Mandarin myself in Beijing. Given her wits capacity, Grace should be joking because Mandarin is even harder that the English she pathetically failed through the University of London. Then she emerges from nowhere and in two months she claims she achieved and earned a PhD. This is the worst scandal of the century. Even Walter Kamba and many other late academics are turning in their graves.

Our education system at the university has been thrown to the dongas because of one family. This is the same way they destroyed the heroes Acre by planting thugs and criminals who never deserved to lie there. Just because President Mugabe listens to his wife, then the whole academic world with links to the UZ should suffer. There is no way this can be allowed to happen. Yes they can rule us all the way they want. Yes they can even destroy the economy and fly 200 people to New York City or Beijing, squandering the very few millions the Chinese favored us with as aid. They can even grab all the land they want. But they cannot tamper with University education. This is the Holy Grail.

The world is watching how the court system will determine the ZINASU application. Either way, the embarrassment is indelible.

The truth of the matter is that:
 - Grace Mugabe never studied at the UZ
 - She never even had a supervisor
 - An apologist Professor, decided to foolishly please Amai.
 - She plotted this PhD scheme in the blink of an eye but she got wrong advice and failed to act well to contain the scandal.
 - She never even carried out the research, neither does she appreciate what the research should be about
 - There was no Faculty member or foreign faculty members who advised her on the project
 - She never even defended her thesis

The fact that it will require a year for the thesis to come out means that as I write someone is burning the candle 24 hours a day to try to come out with a thesis that will assuage the anxiety of all academics the world over. But no one can be fooled by such implausible reasoning. The thesis is not there and was never there so even if someone is drafting it now, that's a sheer waste of time and energy. The truth has already surfaced and landed. Grace Mugabe stole a PhD from the UZ.

That is the reason why the UZ administration has been mum on the issue. They do not have answers. Levy Nyagura fears for his job so he cannot say much. He is also ZANU PF full time. The other senate and council members live in fear and are afraid of being fired but they remain anxious and concerned. Some lecturers have already expressed concern and doubt over this issue and have joined with vocal academics.

The fire should keep burning. The pressure should mount. The world is watching. Grace Mugabe should return the PhD. Hence the demand: #Grace, please return our PhD!

Charles Njaivhana PhD is a software engineer in Hong Kong. He attended the UZ during the Arthur Mutambara/ Tendai Biti/ Gwisai era where he also lived in the New Hall Floor 3, when the UZ was still one of the best colleges in Africa. He can be safely contacted at: katoromaboya@gmail.com