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Dr Maclean Mackson Bhala

Mthokozisi Dube
THE Lupane State University has decided to honour the institution’s late Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr Maclean Mackson Bhala by naming a hostel after him. The honour follows his immense contribution in taking the university from an entity without classrooms or hostels, with an initial enrolment of 12 students to the present 3,040. Speaking at the institution’s 5th graduation ceremony at the university campus in Lupane, the Acting Vice Chancellor Dr Grace Nyakutse told invited guests who included President Mugabe, the Chancellor of all State Universities, that Dr Bhala had dedicated his life to improving the university.

“Your Excellency and Chancellor, it is with deep sense of loss and profound pain that we remember the inaugural Pro Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor for Lupane State University. He was an administrator, a researcher and indeed a scholar who selflessly gave his life to the service of his country in the pre and post independent Zimbabwe,” said Dr Nyakutse.

A moment of silence was observed in honour of Dr Bhala who passed on, on August 11, 2014.
Meanwhile, Makomo, a local mining company based in Hwange, donated more than forty thousand bricks towards the construction of staff houses at Lupane State University.
The university has, said Dr Nyakutse, managed to purchase fifty residential stands for lecturers in Jotsholo.

The Acting Vice Chancellor said the university would relocate from rented premises in Bulawayo to Lupane next year, if funds permit.
Dr Nyakutse said the university was grateful for Dr Olivia Muchena, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development for her unwavering support for the university to operate from its own campus.

“We are grateful to Dr Muchena and her deputy for setting aside an entire day to walk up and down the dusty patches of Lupane looking for possible accommodation for staff so that the university relocates to Lupane. We at Lupane have since given her a nickname, ‘Iron Lady’. We applaud them for their immeasurable financial and material support,” said Dr Nyakutse.