via Students take Grace PhD fight to court 30 September 2014
THE Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) said it has mobilised over 2,000 signatures of students from all the country’s universities which they will attach to a court application challenging the awarding of a PhD to Grace Mugabe by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).
The development comes as the State-run Herald newspaper claimed there was a sinister agenda to embarrass President Mugabe’s wife while propping up Vice President Joice Mujuru who also graduated with a PhD at the same time.
In a report Wednesday, the newspaper questioned the fact that Mujuru’s thesis is already available in the UZ library while Grace’s is not – an absence used by the privately-owned media to back claims that the First Lady’s PhD award could have been irregular.
“We have managed to get 854 signatures at the University of Zimbabwe, 434 from the National University of Science and Technology, Midlands State University we got 576, and 896 from Great Zimbabwe University,” Gilbert Mutubuki ZINASU president told NewZimbabwe.com in an interview Tuesday night.
“We are currently identifying a constitutional lawyer from the country’s best such lawyers who will approach the constitutional court on our behalf before the end of the week because we do not want to appear stupid if we approach the courts without the relevant convincing research and required information and facts to support our arguments,” he added.
Grace was among the 3,274 students who graduated two weeks ago at the UZ and was capped by her husband President Robert Mugabe who is the UZ Chancellor.
But ZINASU said it was not fighting the person of the First Lady but protecting the credibility of the country’s education system.
“We have nothing against the First Lady but what we want is to protect the reputation of our education system so that we will not be underrated by the world in terms of our education.
“If a person does a PhD he or she has to do a research and that research is put in the library for future records and use by other students who will follow,” said Mutubuki.
Meanwhile the Herald newspaper claimed Wednesday that “the process of authenticating, indexing and publishing dissertations and theses took at least 12 months after graduation” suggesting there was a sinister motive in the “super-fast” publication of the vice president’s thesis.
An unidentified UZ academic told the newspaper: “Some thesis will take about a year or more to be available on the shelves of the library.
“There is, however, no stipulated time on how long it will take to have a thesis available in the library. But surely it cannot be found in the library’s shelf immediately after graduation. It is highly unusual and raises eyebrows.”
“The move is meant to raise questions about the authenticity of the First Lady’s academic achievements, yet the records are there to prove that she went through all the processes.’’
COMMENTS
Well done Guy’s. You need to protect your future and those from the past! I recently interviewed a guy for a agricultural project in Africa and his qualifications is his degree from UZ, and unfortunately I do now have a question of his abilities when i am also speaking to others with verifiable quantities, even if they are purported to be less qualified.
And without doubt some true academic has been working night & day to produce a ‘thesis’ that mahure can claim as her own. Pamberi ma 2million jobs! For sure a job for me must be coming soon, nokuti ndinenzara manje???
I am interested in how the regime will react to this “provocation”. And whether there will be judge courageous enough to take on.this case is another moot point. The Con. Court bench is staffed with highly compromised individuals. Zinasu is right in testing the system. Let history record that our young people tried to fight this travesty. We are proud of you.
“We have nothing against the first lady…..” Ya right. We have everything against Grace Marufu, from adultery to destroying the country and now destroying what many have worked very hard to achieve and preserve, academic decency. Now even that has been damaged. No one respects the academia and degrees attained from the University of Zimbabwe any more. Why would they, when literally “taking”, and not studying for a degree is now the norm. PhD in philosophy, my behind. Please kids stop with the political correctness and tell everyone that you indeed have a lot against Grace and PhD degree issues is one of them. Stop being afraid, otherwise your fear will drive us further into the political and economic pit we are in. Yes, we have everything against Grace Marufu and her husband, and that my friends is the truth.
UZ IS CHEAP, PERIOD!
Graduated from UZ or UZeless?
The Mugabe’s have sunk to a new low. This whole thing is despicable. I will say that the old mudhara gets away with everything because the general Zim population allows him to. It is time to say enough!
That means they might also want to look into my PhD? Oh no, this (ZINASU) crowd has to be stopped.
When did Grace Mugabe completed her O levels, the last time I heard she was having string of Us. Now she has PhD. The current UZ council including the Chancellor are very corrupt and abusing their authority putting into disrepute the name of the university. When time comes they all need to be prosecuted for personnaly gaining from this.
Do not support this foolishness. Who said the thesis is not in the library? You just do not know how to search for it coz you are IT illiterate. It’s there do not embarrass yourself.
Mmm… So, “Musa”, are you not embarrassed? Licking Bob’s poop-hole on a public forum…
What an absolute farce …. zimbabwe is like a circus except you don’t go there to laugh. I wonder what the outside world must think on the clowns that claim to run the country ….
The truth is sustained harassment from Robert Mugabe, ndiro duzvi. Keep up the pressure students and all those who genuinely graduated from the UZ. Mugabe arikuda kuparadza UZ asati afa.
Yes grace you can leave peacefully without a Phd – look @ me i preserved the reputation of SA universities & got a fake one from the americans – recuse yourself from the Phd