ZIMBABWE: State cuts funding of Mugabe scholarships

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti (pictured) has blocked the state funding of President Robert Mugabe's scholarship scheme - which is used to send young people to study at foreign universities, especially elsewhere in Africa - on the grounds that it is a personal initiative of the country's autocrat.

Earlier this month Biti told local media that Mugabe must fork out his own money for the scholarship fund on grounds that he had set it up for his own, sentimental reasons.

The presidential scholarship fund, which started operating in 1995, saw students having their studies funded by the state to attend foreign universities.

South African institutions have featured strongly in the scheme, with the University of Fort Hare - Mugabe's almer mater - being the first to participate. In recent years the scheme has been expanded to cover 14 other institutions of higher learning, including Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the universities of Cape Town, Rhodes and the Witwatersrand.

Biti, who is the secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a rival political party to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, was appointed to government in 2009 as part of the power-sharing pact following 2008's disputed presidential poll.

Since the appointment of MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister in the new set-up, and with MDC members getting ministerial posts, Mugabe's powers have been diluted and his abuse of state assets and resources curbed - a development credited for treasury's decision to withhold funding for Mugabe's scholarship fund.

Mugabe obtained his law degree from the University of Fort Hare in the 1950s. It is that link, steeped in history, that the country's finance minister has said is "personal" and has nothing to do with Zimbabwe.

"It is a fund created for sentimental reasons to take students to Fort Hare, so we cannot fund it. Besides we don't have the money," Biti is quoted as saying. "The president wanted us to fund it to the tune of $54-million yet it's private, just like the Reagan Foundation and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation."

Zimbabwe's Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Stan Mudenge, from Zanu-PF, said the president would find the money elsewhere if treasury does not provide.

Observers in Zimbabwe have suggested another reason for the scholarship scheme not to continue being funded by the state: the fact that the person who is in charge of selection is a Mugabe crony, even sidelining the higher education minister.

On 14 February, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu), the country's largest student association, hailed the finance minister's decision to scrap funding of Mugabe's scholarship fund as a "Valentine's present" for them.

The union said it had met with Biti on 4 February and expressed concern about the alleged abuse of the scheme to benefit the children of the president's cronies. It said in a statement that the scheme had "been transformed into a preserve of a few sons and daughters of Zanu-PF officials and war veterans who are rewarded for their loyalty to Mugabe".

As reported by a number of local newspapers, including Zim Daily, Zinasu said that "in a nation where the majority of students have been forced to defer or drop out of studies due to failure to pay tuition fees", the student union could not see the sense of "government funding of a few international students drawing huge funds at the expense of the majority at home".

"It is our belief that the presidential scholarship scheme no longer plays its role of assisting the underprivileged students of our society; rather it is now a tool for patronage and must be funded at personal or party level."

Opposition to Mugabe's student scholarship fund has a long history and is deep-rooted, with dissenting voices growing with the passage of time. But the latest freezing of funds appears to have been influenced by a debate started in the house of assembly in December calling for its scrapping.

As reported by University World News last month, in one contribution MDC for Highfield lawmaker Simon Hove said the money spent on scholarships for overseas study could benefit thousands of students at local institutions.

He added: "We are exporting the little resources we have and have joined those who are sabotaging the economy by externalisation."

The row over the scholarship fund comes at a time when Mugabe has promised state employees, who have threatened to go on strike protesting the awarding of a salary hike to lecturers, separate salary increments from funds realised from the sale of diamonds.

Last month, the government awarded public university lecturers a 130% salary hike, (from about US$800 to US$1,800), as the authorities were forced to prioritise academics on the back of severe brain drain.

At the same time other state employees - the majority earning about US$150 - were awarded increases of between US$6 and US$8 a month. The discrepancy sparked an outcry and a notice of strike action.

Comment:
This development unfortunately affects me personally because I am a direct beneficiary of the Zimbabwe Presidential Scholarship. I believe that Finance Minister Tendai Biti's move is a political one and is not considerate of the people on this scholarship. His accusations do not hold water since the underprivileged still benefit from this good programme.

Pepukayi Chitondo

Comment:
Consideration of how actions can affect the surroundings should be the major concern to any man who has people at heart. Biti needs to learn a lot about life and stop taking all issues on personal political grounds. I'm so pained by this ruthless action: the Bible says that caring for widows and orphans is the worship of the heart. That is what the President is implementing. Minister Biti has to reconsider this issue.

John Mazanga

Comment:
I am baffled by Finance Minister Tendai Biti's decision because firstly, he is a beneficiary of free education and secondly, a beneficiary of free government university grants offered by President Mugabe.

He has shown world class political myopism and the worst case scenario of naivety that exemplifies lack of statecraft that runs deep in his representative capacity of the body polity of his party. His move is anti-human and against a whole humble generation.

Can he be entrusted to lead Zimbabwe in terms of running the finances of the country? Definitely not! The world is watching. You cannot settle political scores by undermining and subverting public programmes that benefit the ordinary people. There are a lot of things that the president did and put in place to benefit the ordinary people including the scholarship programme, but because you differ from him, does not put to nullity the ingenuity and nobleness of the Presidential Scholarship programme that President Mugabe started.

Let me remind the minister that he ought to be reasonable on this issue. In biblical language they say in Shona that "anoshungurudza nherera nevanotambura anenge abata mboni yaMwari".

Darlington Muzeza

Comment:
Tendai Biti is right. A majority of students in Zimbabwe are suffering. He is not a beneficiary of the Presidential scholarship and, as the name of the scheme suggests, the President should fork out the cash. We can't keep externalising much needed cash. My brother is a beneficiary - all I have to say is tough luck!

John Jabavu

Comment:
From the article it goes without saying that minister Biti blocked the funding not because the programme is useless, but rather to realise his own political ideologies. He forgets that there are orphans who are beneficiaries of the scholarship. No matter what one might think about the president, the scholarship has gone a way to help young people in the country.

Felix Dube

Comment
Honourable Biti, as a politician, you taken one of the most drastic moves in your career. You lacked diplomacy and charisma to win the hearts of the populace. What will the people say when it comes to their knowledge that you also benefitted from state funded education? You were supposed to fire a warning shot first.

It is better you let those benefitting now finish their studies and not then not allow further intakes to the scheme. What you have done is totally mediocre because you are just speculating that those benefitting are the sons and daughters of Zanu pf cronies. I think that is a white lie. Do you have a heart, Mr Minister, or are veins flowing with human blood? I wonder.

You have destroyed the lives of many people, not only those under the scheme, but their families and the country at large. How come you say you don't have the money yet the scheme has been running since you were a teenager??

Zaka Zaka