Looting of diamond funds delays student support scheme

Zimbabwe has failed to reintroduce grants and loans due to the looting of diamond funds that the treasury had earmarked to go towards funding student support.

Presenting his 2012 national budget in parliament last December, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said student support would be re-introduced this year and the funding would come from the proceeds of diamond sales.

At the time the minister unveiled a US$4 billion budget, of which US$600 million was earmarked to come from diamond sales and would help to relaunch student loans and grants.

Zimbabwe abolished support for students nearly a decade ago at the height of an economic and political crisis, which eased in 2009 with the formation of a unity government between long time ruler President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the then opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who is now prime minister.

Tendai Biti, also from the MDC, has constantly complained that diamond revenues have not been reaching treasury. The situation is complicated, because diamond companies operate secretively and most are run by people aligned to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

Last week Biti said many economic and higher education targets had been missed as a result of the non-remittance of some money from diamond sales. While US$600 million had been budgeted for, only US$41 million had found its way to the treasury.

Biti revised the country’s budget downwards, and said the state of public finances was “further deteriorating”. Revenue under-performance would curtail funding of government operations unless additional revenue was raised.

These operations included the apprenticeship and internship scheme to assist school-leavers and job-seekers acquiring practical experience, and the student grant and loan scheme, which was “critical for re-building the country’s human resource base”.

In a statement, the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) said the failure to re-introduce student grants and support had resulted in severe hardships for students.

It said many students had been forced to defer or drop out of university due to lack of funding. Students could also no longer afford transport costs, resulting in many failing to attend lecturers regularly or being forced to walk extremely long distances and suffering from exhaustion, undermining their academic performance.

Poverty was obliging students to live in “repugnant, squalid and insalubrious conditions”. In high density suburbs, many were “being exploited by unscrupulous landlords who pile as many as 10 students in one room”, said ZINASU. In such environments, sanitation and disease outbreaks resulting from lack of clean water were a concern.

Further, the union said, “many students are resorting to engaging in relationships with ‘sugar
daddies’ for financial benefit, or outright prostitution”. A study had shown that “contrary to popular belief, sex in exchange for favours is not peculiar to female students alone.”

Despite these sad tales, in his budget revision statement last week the finance minister said that cumulative disbursements to date for the construction and rehabilitation of higher education institutions amounted to US$9.94 million.