By Farai Nyamuzihwa
With all respect, people deserve congratulations when they do well. When people work hard, and sweat for it, burning the candle all night long, they deserve the accolades.
This week many raised their eyebrows to hear that Grace Mugabe, of all academics, had earned a Doctorate degree. The truth is that she did not deserve it because she never worked for it. Here is why:
A known Sociology Professor who loves ZANU PF more than his own wife recommended that Amai must get this wonderful gift in return for favours in the party. This bootlicking Professor known by everyone to be eyeing for a post saw it fit that this scandal could be absorbed by the docile Zimbabwean community and be killed over time.
The same degree would also appeal to those foolish ZANU PF youths and ignorant community women who sheepishly followed ZANU PF without question. Grace would emerge as the right lady in shining armour, educated and all. In so doing many would actually forget that this fake degree would go a long way and shake the entire world as a scandal of all time.
She registered at the UZ in July 2014 and by September 11 2014, she had already completed her thesis thereby becoming one of the world’s fastest PhD earners in the world to date. She never had a Masters degree after she failed English with the University of London.
Then she studied the Chinese language by correspondence and reportedly earned her Bachelors. Nowhere is it reported as to how or where she earned her Masters Degree. She even never had any independent foreign assessors for her thesis topic, never consulted on the topic as such and never even had a chance to research and compile the thesis , let alone defend her thesis.
Suddenly, because Robert Mugabe is the President and Chancellor of the UZ, she just had to have it no matter what people would say. The truth was that the degree became fake from the start and will always remain so. It will never be acknowledged by anyone and will never work in any capacity. Even an honorary could be better because it comes with deserving merits.
Even as she had the degree conferred, she felt guilty because she is empty-headed and never worked for it. Her speeches, conduct or even public standing do not by any means give an iota of what she studied. Anyone would even be surprised to learn that she does not even know the implications of the so called Philosophy that she graduated in.
Added to that, she will find it even difficult to explain the modalities of a thesis. She has no clue of how an education system works yet she finds the audacity to push her husband to confer such a powerful degree to her. It’s like setting your own exam and grading it and making yourself a top achiever.
This is a public scandal of all time and it worked to compromise the education system of Zimbabwe in general. It would therefore, from now on, not be a surprise if she commands President Mugabe to confer more of these fake degrees to her family members for the fun of it.
These people destroyed the economy and now they are on their way into destroying the roots of our tertiary education. It just brings relief to me in that every right thinking citizen realizes this embarrassing public fraud and wonders what this means. No one even realized President Mugabe, educated as he is, would sink this low to command the UZ senate and council to award such a shallow-minded, empty-headed lady with such powerful credentials.
Degrees are not bought but are earned after research and hard work. This is not taking Zimbabwe anywhere. It simply helps to portray to the world just how things have become. Education has been inflated. The economy has been destroyed and ethics have been eroded.
This Monday morning, watch my words, corporate CEOs will be stepping on each other’s toes for media space to “congratulate Her Royal Highness” for this public fraud. It is now sad that in Zimbabwe people now worship the first family like they worship God. The foolish smiles, the desperate words of praise and the conduct by some men and women especially in ZANU PF simply creates this satire that any terrace observer would cry over and regret being a Zimbabwean.
That is just how cheap some people in Zimbabwe have become. You wake up and are told your PhD is ready for pick up. You take a bath, brush your teeth and even have the courage to go and face the world and claim that you worked for it yet you really know deep down your heart that this is the scandal of all time.
Shame on the First family. This is a disgrace of all time.
You can contact Farai Nyamizihwa at: [email protected]
