Former ‘fake MP’ Dexter Nduna finally graduates after previous fake graduation claim

HARARE – Former Chegutu West legislator and Zanu-PF Central Committee member, Dexter Nduna, officially graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) at the institution’s 44th graduation ceremony in Harare on Friday.

Nduna’s graduation follows a highly publicised controversy last year, when he falsely claimed to have completed the programme.

In September 2024, the UZ publicly confirmed that Nduna had not met the requirements to graduate, contradicting his social media posts congratulating himself on the achievement.

A leaked university memo at the time revealed that Nduna had failed three courses, Energy and Mining Law, Labour Law, and Language Acquisition and Intercultural Communication Literacy (Chinese Language).

Despite this, he purchased a graduation gown and attended the ceremony, although he was not seated with the other law graduates.

His appeal for exam remarking, in which he cited political bias, was dismissed by the university. The incident prompted Nduna to issue a public apology to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the nation for misleading the public.

Having completed the outstanding modules during the 2024/2025 academic year, Nduna’s name appeared on the official graduation roll this year, marking his legitimate conferment of the law degree.

Nduna is not new to controversy. Between 2018 and 2023, the Chegutu West parliamentary seat was at the centre of a drawn-out election dispute.

In the July 2018 elections, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) initially declared Zanu-PF’s Nduna the winner, but later admitted a counting error and confirmed opposition MDC-Alliance’s Gift Konjana had actually received more votes.

ZEC, however, said only the courts could reverse the result.

Konjana filed a High Court application in August 2018, but Justice Mary Zimba-Dube dismissed it on a technicality. He appealed to the Supreme Court in November 2018, which, by law, was supposed to resolve the matter within three months.

Instead, hearings were repeatedly delayed, including due to Nduna’s lawyers failing to file papers, and the case dragged on for over two years.

In May 2019, Justice Rita Makarau said the appeal should be heard, but a later bench led by Justice Bharat Patel questioned whether the case could continue because the legal time limit had already lapsed.

The court only delivered its judgement in 2023, two years and eight months after ZEC’s admitted error, dismissing the appeal on the grounds that the time limit had been exceeded.

Throughout this period, Nduna served in parliament, drawing full benefits, despite ZEC’s own records showing he lost the election.

Critics said the delays violated Zimbabwe’s Constitution and Electoral Act, undermined democracy, and eroded the rule of law.