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Masvingo court prosecutor Mukai Mutumhe being conferred with a Masters in Commerce degree by President Robert Mugabe at Great Zimbabwe University yesterday

Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
President Robert Mugabe yesterday capped 1,883 students who graduated in different disciplines at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU).

The graduates successfully completed first and higher degrees in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, Culture and Heritage studies, Commerce, Education as well as Agriculture and natural sciences.

During the graduation ceremony, President Mugabe also commissioned an ambulance and a 75- seater bus recently acquired by the University for its Staff and students.

In his speech, the university’s Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo underscored the need for institutions of higher learning to abandon the “cry-babies” syndrome that has seen them expecting the government to always give them money even during difficult economic times.

Prof Zvobgo said in pursuit of Zim-Asset, the university had embarked on a number of income generating projects to sustain its operations.

Prof Zvobgo said GZU had acquired a number of buildings in Masvingo city as it has adopted a multi-campus system and the efforts are already paying dividends. He said the institution’s enrolment rose from 5,675 in 2013 to 13,400 in 2015.

Prof Zvobgo said as part of its human capital development, most of the university’s luecturers would have acquired doctorates by 2018.

He said the university now boasts of 43 academic staff with PhDs while 131 are enrolled towards that with both local and international universities.

“As I promised, Your Excellency and the nation at last year’s graduation ceremony, this year has been dedicated to resource mobilisation. We acknowledge that our resources are vast and most of our resources are intellectual. I believe that nothing beats imagination and creativity hence we tap fully into the power of our talents and the potential of our people,” said Prof Zvobgo.

He said the university has acquired a brick moulding machine with a capacity to produce 35,000 bricks per week which the university uses in its infrastructural development initiatives.

He said some of the bricks are sold to Masvingo residents as part of the university’s resource mobilisation strategy. “The purchase of a brick moulding machine was also inspired by the need to provide a conducive environment for the development of an invaluable human resource base for the nation, in pursuit of high quality education and excellence,” he added.

Prof Zvobgo said the university had also fully commercialised its farms which also provide all its food requirements that include beef, chicken and vegetables.

He thanked Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo for donating computers for their Mashava campus last month. He said the university has formed a steering committee comprising academic staff from the Faculty of Law and Chiefs to come up with a syllabus for chiefs to be trained in basic law by the university starting next year.

The Vice Chancellor said the initiative would improve the justice delivery system.