Open Letter to Professor Amon Murwira on BUSE block release programmes

Professor Amon Murwira, I am a Bindura University of Science Education Undergraduate Block Release student who is so angry at the way we are being treated at the University. The University informed us that block release classes would commence last week. Since the majority of us are employed, we had to negotiate leave days with our employers who in most cases would be reluctant to release us in January. Upon reaching the university, some of us are not having lectures as our lecturers are refusing to teach us saying some of them are owed block release pay dating back to 2016. Some of the lecturers are saying the Vice Chancellor, Professor Edhiyosi (alias Eddie) Mwenje, is refusing to pay them their dues saying that he has come up with a formula that proves that the lecturers are under loaded so they do not deserve to be paid. Is this your directive, Minister? If it is, is that not an unfair way to treat your workers? How can a debt be extinguished by a formula? So, as students why are we paying full fees when the lecturers are not being paid their dues?

Some of us interact with fellow students at the Midlands State University and the NUST where block release programmes are also conducted and our colleagues there do not have the kind of disturbances that we are experiencing. Minister, did you not extend the formula to these universities also? If you did, how come in those institutions the formula is working? So, who now takes the portion of the money that Professor Edhiyosi Mwenje is withholding from our lecturers?

The reputation of the University is now in tatters. I, for one, would never recommend anyone to apply for enrolment at this University due to the behaviour of its Vice Chancellor. Our colleagues tried to meet him to chart a way forward and he arrogantly dismissed them saying he does not talk to students. When some of us surrounded his Mercedes Benz as a way of forcing him not to leave us in the cold and address us, he fled the scene in one of his other University car, a Mazda BT-50 leaving our colleagues vakagarira guyo sembwa (they waited for nothing). The Faculty of Commerce Dean also does not help matters as he appears to be on a mission to appease this Vice Chancellor at all costs. I think they are related, because we have heard that the Vice Chancellor has close relatives employed in the Faculty, maybe he is one of those people. Minister, please attend to our plight urgently as we are incurring lots of unnecessary expenses such as food and accommodation. Some of us are not rich. We actually get loans for these blocks as we would be hoping that when we get our degrees we would be able to improve our lives.
We pay significantly higher fees than other students at State Universities but we get treated as if we are charity cases.

Last semester, some fellow students had to cover a course in just two days in between examinations to enable them to write the final examination which was already on the timetable. We were told that the lecturer had also refused to teach when the other courses were taught because he had not been paid for the work he had done in the past. Minister, may you assist us by meeting the lecturers to find out what is happening at this University. The management is arrogant. I guess they are taught that by Professor Edhiyosi Mwenje because he is the most arrogant of them all. Conventional students told us of an incident where their seniors had to resort to courts to get this Vice Chancellor to let them write examinations after he had refused to let them write examinations over some part one course regulation which was not applicable to them. The then President of the SRC pleaded with him in the presence of chairpersons and deans and he alone arrogantly refused to allow the affected students to write the examinations leaving the students with no choice but to go to the High Court. When the students won their case in court, Professor Edhiyosi Mwenje then refused to give them their examination results. He said they should go back to court to get another order for the release of their results. They then went to court again and got that order. These students had two years of their lives wasted that way by this Professor Edhiyosi Mwenje. Minister, we may be students but we deserve to be treated fairly.

Minister, could you monitor these block release programmes at this university? Perhaps, the funds generated in these programmes are not being handled properly. One way of starting this could be conducting a forensic audit on the operations of these block release programmes at this university. Meanwhile, please help us get the service we paid for. We want to be taught by lecturers who are motivated not disgruntled when they finally come to teach us. We would be so happy if you could help us urgently.

All conventional students are made to pay a bus fee for some bus service which is usually not offered. It is just not possible for the University to provide this bus service because the number of students are far too many compared to the buses the university has.

Affected Student