OPPOSITION Build Zimbabwe Alliance leader, Noah Manyika, has called for the depoliticisation of institutions of higher learning, starting with President Robert Mugabe stepping down as chancellor of all State universities.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
Manyika said universities should be “depoliticised” and be led by innovators, who will push for the institutions to establish global relationships to turn them into “centres of innovation and business incubators”.
“It is not possible to equip young Zimbabweans to prosper without the depoliticising our institutions of higher learning.
“With Build Zimbabwe Alliance, the signal that we will send is that we are depoliticising these institutions, with first all by the head of State not being the chancellor of all State universities in the country, making sure that we allow educators, innovators, people with vested interests in different provinces to lead them,” Manyika told journalists.
Mugabe is the chancellor of all State universities, and at one time MDC-T legislator, Jessie Majome said the 93-year-old leader must step down given his pressing workload and the increase in the number of universities.
Majome argued in Parliament in 2016 that it did not augur well with tenets of good governance to make the Head of State a Chancellor of all State universities.
Manyika added State universities must also be led by “innovators” from their respective provinces to drive regional economic development.
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“We will send a very strong signal as the BZA that institutions like the National University of Science and Technology need to be led by people who really have the best interest in the development of Bulawayo and this province. That actually serves the national good.
“These institutions must be liberated to do what they know best, that is to innovate and not to serve the purposes of central government and political actors. We are determined to make sure that the heading of these institutions is by people who are really innovative, not necessarily political authorities in Harare. There is a need to free these institutions to establish local and global relationships to turn them into centres of innovation and business incubators in their provinces,” Manyika said.
