Top university launches major fundraising campaign

The University of Zimbabwe has mounted a major fundraising campaign aimed at restoring its status as one of Africa’s premier higher education institutions, in a programme backed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

Zimbabwe’s Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, a former professor and former president of the university’s student representative council, has been appointed patron of the fundraising drive.

Mutambara and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders who signed an agreement to form a unity government with Zimbabwe’s long-time ruler President Robert Mugabe following Mbeki’s mediation efforts. They now lead offshoots of the MDC.

The formation of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government has seen stabilisation of the economy and the scaling up of efforts to rehabilitate collapsing infrastructure, including universities.

Launching the programme, Mutambara said he aimed to raise US$20 million though the initiative by the end of this year. The money would go towards meeting part of the University of Zimbabwe’s US$70 million requirement for capital projects, as outlined in a fundraising handbook.

He said a fundraising committee comprising influential alumni as well as key people from within the university had been set up to manage the campaign. Also, several alumni now resident abroad have been identified to serve as ambassadors for the university.

Although the efforts are alumni-driven, support is also being sought from the public and private sectors, civil society and Zimbabweans in the diaspora – millions of people left the country during the political and economic crises that began in 2000.

Mutambara said Mbeki would be the guest of honour at a fundraising dinner to be held on 28 April in the university’s Great Hall. “We aim to raise US$10 million at the dinner and US$20 million by the end of 2012 through the ongoing activities of the fundraising committee.”

The capital projects comprise 20 initiatives, including state-of-the-art geo-technology laboratories that will process large volumes of Earth observation data, a technology resource centre, business advisory services and the refurbishment of medical and other laboratories.

A female student hostel and a world-class Graduate School of Management would be constructed, old furniture in the university library would be replaced, and scholarships and other forms of assistance would be provided to disadvantaged and special-needs students, said Mutambara. Funds raised would also be used as capital for an endowment fund.

He said donations could take numerous forms including funds for capital projects, building materials and scholarships, equipment, exchange programmes, endowed research positions, corporate adoption of classrooms and laboratories, and in-kind donations such as books and building materials.

The deputy prime minister said Zimbabwe was now aggressively pursuing the principle of Africans giving back to their own institutions, starting with the University of Zimbabwe through a strategic and sustainable fundraising framework.

He expressed regret that while many Africans had scaled global organisational heights, achieving economic status and creating considerable wealth in sectors such as telecommunications, mining, construction and banking, there was a dearth of formal African philanthropy in the form of corporate, private and community foundations.

This was because African people’s deep-rooted culture of giving operated mainly at the family and community levels.

As part of restoring the University of Zimbabwe, on 10 April Vice President Joice Mujuru launched a tele-education service at the institution, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe. The initiative is part of India’s offer to help connect all 53 African nations via a satellite and fibre optic network that will provide communication for tele-education, among other things.

The fundraising initiative comes against the backdrop of eroding infrastructure at the university, which was at one time closed due to lack of clean water. According to a report compiled in 2010 by the parliamentary committee on education, the institution has also suffered massive brain drain over the past decade.