HARARE West MP Jessie Majome (MDC-T) has called on President Robert Mugabe to step down as chancellor of all State universities, arguing the workload was now too much for him given the increasing number of State universities in the country.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Majome made the proposal on Thursday while contributing to debate on a motion on the Pan African Minerals University of Sciences and Technology Bill. The proposed university is expected to train high calibre mineral experts from all over Africa and its chancellor will be Mugabe.
“In 1990 when I was at the University of Zimbabwe, it was befitting that indeed the Head of State and Government was the chancellor of the university because it was the one and only university in the country. Then in 1991, the National University of Science and Technology came into place and the Head of State also became the chancellor, which I am sure was manageable,” Majome said.
“But, since 1990 there has been an exponential increase in the number of State universities in each and every province and to the present day, there are now 10 State universities and I want MPs to seriously apply their minds and think about the fact that the chancellor of a State university is a very important post and at the apex of decision-making of the university.
“Even from an ordinary human point of view, it is my submission that it is humanly impossible for an individual to have the time and energy of being a chancellor of each and every State university unless we intend that the post of a chancellor is just a ceremonial and it does not matter,” Majome said.
The MP said it did not augur well with tenets of good governance to make the Head of State a chancellor of all State universities. “That will mean that the Head of State has a lot of very important work to do, especially at these times where our nation is grappling with some of its more serious issues in terms of economic crisis,” she said.
“To also continue heaping upon him another responsibility to be the chancellor of another university does not do justice to the universities themselves because I do not think he will be able to have the time to address issues that need guidance to that university.”
