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By
Brilliant Mhlanga
THE recent
suspension and subsequent expulsion of student leaders by the Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Levi Nyagura confirms the need
for his name to be added to the international travel sanctions list.
The disappointing issue is to note that some people have been included in the list when in reality they no longer deserve to be there anymore. In my view this is due to some form of ill advice from some sections of the civil society. The need to include Professor Nyagura’s name in the targeted sanctions list cannot be over-emphasized. Most people might fail to see the wisdom in it.
I wish to explain a few issues here about this often abused position by some politicians who purport to be academics when they even have nothing to show for their claim. Such people include Nyagura whose academic history remains highly questionable.
Having been a Student leader before at the University of Zimbabwe, my knowledge of the administrative avenues and general functioning of the political structures at the premier institution of learning is predicated on first hand experience. Firstly, the office of the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Zimbabwe serves as the embodiment of the office of the Chancellor on Campus. Interestingly, the Chancellor of all State Universities as enunciated in the University charter is the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
This anomaly is a deliberate creation of parliament. The politicians vaguely created it as move aimed at quelling down student unrest, which became rife in the 1980s to this day. There is need also to underscore the point that at independence, through a residual policy model, Zimbabwe embraced certain colonial policy structures, one of which was the University Charter, which by then was being used in running the University of Rhodesia.
At independence the first Chancellor following this structure was Professor Canaan Sodindo Banana, who became the first ceremonial President of Zimbabwe as provided for by the Lancaster House Constitution. The issue of a head of state being made the Chancellor was not much of a necessity by then, this explains why there was no such hullabaloo about it in the early 1980s to 1987. Some people have even pointed at the post independence euphoria as the major cause, by further stating that Zimbabweans by then were too engrossed with the power that had just fallen into the hands of the blacks. Little did they know that in reality power had fallen into the hands of a few already black elite people like Mugabe. Furthermore, the creation of two major offices at the country’s apex numbed the feeling by any academic of being overwhelmed because the President was just a ceremonial head of state and the Prime Minister had all the executive powers vested in him.
Those of us who still remember the old traditional story of the giraffe and the owner of the house would realise how it worked in the case of the University of Zimbabwe. The owners of the house in this case were the academics, and the government as a political structure was the giraffe which employed whatever means available to enter the house and avoid the freezing cold outside. Following the owner-giraffe story we can see how the political house gradually infiltrated the academic house. It was at first through a simple and seemingly harmless structure, the ceremonial head (Non-Executive President), which ended in 1987. This can be allegorised to the head and the front limbs of the giraffe, when it first approached the unsuspecting owner of the house.
The zenith was at the height of the Matabeleland atrocities when Joshua Nkomo was coerced into signing a peace deal, and forced to join Zanu PF. Soon after that Nkomo was sent to address students at the University of Zimbabwe. It is worth emphasising that was normal university culture to engage political leaders in various political discourses. Professor Angela Cheater says on the day in question, students berated the Vice President, whose task was to silence these youthful ‘non-chalatants’ as they used to refer to students. Upon arrival Joshua Nkomo, was received by a wild atmosphere, completely different from the one he was used to at most of his political rallies in the rural areas. This time the brave and combative youths obviously incensed by their wisdom from the books they read in stake-room three had a different form of respect for this old politician. To them the only form of political discourse was supposed to be a two way process not the traditional one of the leader and the 'donkey' (follower).
On that day students refused to sit on their chairs preferring to sit on their desks as a sign of protest, against Nkomo's betrayal of the people of Matabeleland. They even told Nkomo that they cannot receive him as a principled leader since he had sold the people of Matabeleland who were fresh from Mugabe’s butchery, by joining the ruling bandwagon. These words and clarity led to the coining of the University Charter, following Nkomo's report to parliament. According to the politicians students needed to have their flying wings clipped and big boots stuffed into their mouths to hold their tongues. The University Charter was then amended and passed in December 1990, as a Christmas present to mark the demise of the academic house, which had finally been displaced by the giraffe.
The University Charter now had Section Four, which clearly gave all the powers to the Vice-Chancellor. According to this section the Vice-Chancellor now had the power as the chief academic administrator of the premier institution to suspend, expel and even to bar from campus any member (s) of staff and students. The Vice Chancellor now had the power to dissolve the Students Union. These unchecked powers allow the Vice-Chancellor to run the institution in the 'best interests' of the political representation that aggravated his elevation into that position. The charter clearly states that the there shall be a Vice-Chancellor who shall be appointed by the Chancellor, who is a Head of State, in consultation with the Chair of the University Council. The President in consultation with minister responsible shall appoint the Chair of the University Council according to this charter.
There is a clearly deliberate vagueness in the use of the term ‘consultation’. The term 'consultation' in political circles refers to arbitrary decisions that have to be taken by the Chancellor (President Mugabe), in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors and Chairpersons of the council. This move is seriously in breach of University culture, which is supposed to celebrate academic freedom. It also disenfranchises the community. It destroys academic excellence too. A closer look at the period of enactment if this Charter saw the unceremonious resigning of Professor Walter Kamba, citing too much political fingers meddling into his administration.
It was after Professor Kamba’s term that students began to be actively suspended. This followed Professor Chavunduka’s term, and his removal from office by the still combative students. Then followed by Professor Graham Hill, the man under whose reign this writer had a serious experience of political incarceration, suspensions and expulsions. The Pro-Vice Chancellor during Professor Hill’s time was Professor Nyagura, whose term as an assistant was marred with serious corruption. It would be remembered that Professor Nyagura was once associated with a truckload of stolen computers, which was nabbed from the main Churchill gate of the University of Zimbabwe.
The man also boasts of having been associated with the liberation struggle. This explains his link with the ruling party, particularly with Mugabe and his unceasing love and patronage of the Officers’ Mess at King George VI Army Headquarters. Nyagura holds dearly the belief that students, academics and other members of the University community are subordinates. Therefore they have no say in the running of the university. His warped view of the university as an institution is that the Vice-Chancellor is the only stakeholder who has interests in the running of the university. His management style is characterised by gross bureaucratic constipation, corruption and unparalleled administrative militancy.
Furthermore, it is worth stating that in political terms the Vice-Chancellor is a Vice-President. Professor Phineas Makhurane at Manama High School further confirmed this in 1996, when he was invited as the guest of honour at a prize giving ceremony. However, some Vice Presidents have chosen to be true to their principles and have never suspended any student in their institutions -- an issue that Professor Nyagura still has to learn, basing our evidence from his hammer mentality.
The suspension of Student leaders has always been politically motivated. The Vice-Chancellor has always used his powers to suspend, expel and bar students from entering campus. A critical mind would also deduce the Vice-Chancellor’s loyalty to the ruling party. Following this form of intransigence and a clear political leaning by Professor Nyagura, there is no way one would refute a move by the Students Union to call for his name to be included in the sanctions list. The Vice-Chancellor's latest move to expel the Student leaders who wrote the letter that was sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair, as the current Chairman of the European Union, confirms the need for his name to be included in the sanctions list.
It is worth stating that these problems faced by the students are a mirror of the broader politics. They reflect the government’s desperate move to hold on to power by seeking to impede any dissenting voices. Students like any other responsible citizens cannot take a back seat when these irresponsible political leaders are trampling on their future. It is their duty, therefore, to be vigilant and rebel against the political madness currently obtaining in Zimbabwe.
The suspensions
and expulsions being meted on students as punishment must not deter
them. The world is watching. Strategic alliances with other socially
progressive forces have to be engineered. Their call for international
banishment of Vice-Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura remains valid.
Brilliant Mhlanga is a former UZ Student Leader and Human Rights
Activist. He can be contacted at: bsigabadem@yahoo.co.uk
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