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President takes time off Zanu PF indaba to cap MSU students

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PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday squeezed time in between the ongoing Zanu PF national conference in Victoria Falls to fly to Gweru where he capped more than 2 000 students at Midlands State University (MSU).

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday squeezed time in between the ongoing Zanu PF national conference in Victoria Falls to fly to Gweru where he capped more than 2 000 students at Midlands State University (MSU).

BY Stephen Chadenga

This is the second MSU graduation ceremony in less than a month after Mugabe presided over the capping of 2 258 students on November 21.

Under normal circumstances, the students should have graduated next year, but Mugabe reportedly requested that they graduate this year, on the grounds that the number of this year’s graduands was “too low”.

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MSU vice-chancellor Ngwabi Bhebe thanked Mugabe for taking time off his party conference to grace the graduation ceremony.

“. . . I am exceedingly thrilled to invite to you to join me in extending a hearty welcome to a rare intellectual and leader, His Excellency President Robert Mugabe, who has squeezed in time, in the midst of extremely important proceedings of the revolutionary Zanu PF party conference, to officiate at our graduation ceremony today,” he said.

“Your Excellency and Chancellor, we will forever be profoundly grateful to you for gracing and personally participating in our graduation ceremonies twice this academic year.”

Bhebe announced that the MSU’s Department of Local Governance had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Centre for Local Democracy in Sweden to provide capacity-building programmes for 50 local female councillors.

He also said the same department had entered into another MoU with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and had since received $4 000 for research into the constitutionalism of local government in Zimbabwe.

“The Swedish International Agency will provide funding to the tune of $700 000 for this three- year project,” Bhebhe said. He said the university had won the bid to host the Pan-African Students Debate next year.