Nyatsime College succumbs to Zanu PF pressure

By Stephen Tsoroti

DESPITE some decades-long bad blood between Nyatsime College and ZANU-PF over land expropriation, the institution will next week provide accommodation to delegates of the ruling party’s congress.

At least 300 delegates to the forthcoming ZANU-PF congress will stay at Nyatsime College in Chitungwiza, an institution from which the ZANU-PF government expropriated land years ago.

The expropriation, which occurred in 1993, was seen as a slap in the face for late nationalist and historian, Stanlake Samkange, founder of Nyatsime College. Samkange was an economic adviser to the Abel Muzorewa-led UANC political party in 1976.

Nyatsime was the first private school to be established and administered by black people in Zimbabwe.

The principal of the college, Maone Veremu, confirmed to the Financial Gazette that the issue of the expropriated land was still in the courts and that no compensation had as of yet been given to the institution.

According to Veremu, ZANU-PF has hired the venue to accommodate 300 delegates.  A visit to the school showed the place being spruced up. A new toilet block has been constructed, supposedly in preparation for the delegates.

Government expropriated two thirds of land that Nyatsime College initially had been allocated.  The land was given to the Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP), which went into a joint venture with Old Mutual to develop a shopping mall (Chitungwiza Town Centre).

The government was supposed to pay Nyatsime College compensation of US$55 000 of which only US$25 000 was offered to the college.

The late Samkange, at the time, refused to accept the money and took the matter to court. Several attempts were made to settle the issue of compensation between 1993 to-date without success.

UDCORP held several meetings with the Nyatsime board to persuade them to withdraw the matter from the courts but nothing has materialised. Attempts were also made to engage Old Mutual to pay for the land where their shopping mall is established.

It became apparent that Old Mutual had no obligation to compensate Nyatsime College, since the land where they have a shopping mall was given to them by UDCORP, and the Deed of Grant given to Old Mutual in 1995 has since reverted to the state.

Nyatsime College was registered as an educational institution on August 14, 1960 from funds solicited from a number of organisations and individuals.

Singers such as Miriam Makeba, the Manhattam Brothers with Hugh Masekala toured the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe raising funds for the building of Nyatsime College.  In 1960, the United States government sponsored a tour in Zimbabwe by Louis (Satchmo) Amstrong to further raise money for the college.

Although a full list of institutions housing congress delegates had not been made available to the Financial Gazette by the time of going to press, those that have traditionally hosted the ruling party include ZESA Training School, Belvedere Teachers College, Harare Polytechnic, among others. – Financial Gazette