The Sunday Mail
by ABEL DZOBO
Barely three years into his tenure as the Vice Chancellor of Great Zimbabwe University, the academic institution has raked 16 awards, translating to roughly five awards a year.
There is the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Overall Transformational Leader of the Year Award (2012), LASOF Career and Leadership Legacy Builder Award (2013), Best Regional University Award (UK 2013), The greatest Contribution to Education, World Congress of Chancellors and Vice Chancellors (India 2014), and recently at the Zimbabwe Business Council Awards, the Best University 2014, among others.
A humble man, Prof Rungano J. Zvobgo attributes all this to the teamwork from GZU staff. “This is the culmination of combined teamwork by all members of GZU. It’s out of working in harmony, it’s a clear testimony of collaborative spirit which now characterises the operations of GZU staff,” he said.
But he exalts in the University of the Year Award as if it were his first.
“The University of The Year award is not a light compliment, it means we are making a huge difference to Masvingo in particular and the nation at large,” he says.
But what brought this latest award?
His eyes brighten as he narrates how he has steered his ship to glory.
“We have established the physical reality of the university, making people see the university in its real form. We have established multiple campuses around Masvingo, and no one can ignore us anymore. We have grown our student population from 4 000 and now we are above 10 000,” he said.
Besides the main campus at the GZU, there is the Mashava Campus (Faculties of Arts, Commerce and Culture and Heritage), Mucheke Campus (Tourism and Hospitality), and in the city there are campuses namely the Herbert Chitepo School of Law, Centre for African and Asian Studies, Gender and Cultural Studies and the School of Social Sciences. On assuming his post at GZU, Prof Zvobgo was charged by his Chancellor, His Excellency President Mugabe, to transform the university into a centre for cultural and heritage studies, a task from which he would not balk but execute to perfection, judging by the awards that have been rolling in.
“We have transformed the curriculum from General degrees to Honours degrees. And we have re-engineered our programmes to fall in line with our niche of culture and heritage,” he said. He said culture and heritage were important catalysts to development as they free the mind from inferiority complex instilled by colonialism.
“Culture and heritage is a discipline which seeks to establish our rich cultural heritage which makes us distinctly African. It seeks to discover how we can manipulate that knowledge in promoting and propelling the development of our youths and the economy and by creating jobs,” he said. He said having restored pride in our cultural identity, innovation could be elicited.
“Culture becomes the total expression of every aspect of human endeavour, which promotes nationhood and self-reliance.
“Government looks so much to this university to make a distinctive difference in the development of our economy because culture and heritage as a discipline embodies the spirit of innovation and creativity, which translates to job creation and self-reliance,” he said.
He said GZU was, therefore, spearheading the establishment of arts such as music and other creative arts to be big businesses, not the obtaining environment whereby artefacts are sold for a song. He said it was in this spirit that the University launched the School of African and Asian studies last year to restore African pride.
“The centre for African and Asian Studies is inspired by Pan-Africanism, the search for identity and the quest to answer the question, ‘Who are we as Africans?’
“It carries forward the dream of the Founding Fathers of the Organisation of African Unity, which is now the AU, such as the late Julius Mwalimu Nyerere (Tanzania), Sekou Toure (Guinea) and Abdel Nasser (Egypt), among others. Our forefathers dreamed of establishing an African reality and the quest for independence.
“The African political experience is intricately connected with the Asian struggle for independence, especially that of India, such that knowledge of one informs the understanding of the other,” he said. He said Africa has to benefit from its resources, not letting then be airlifted by the developed world at the expense of her people.
“The inferiority complex that our people suffer from does permanent damage to our quest to claim Africa as a continent of development. People are coming to us – everybody is looking to Africa for their own survival. So we need to sit down and see how we can benefit from our resources. And we want a graduate who is proud, who does not apologise for being black,” he said.
But one of GZU’s key achievements last year was the opening of the Herbert Chitepo School of Law, whose main aim is to use law “as a tool of liberation, not oppression”. “Herbert Chitepo School of Law is not just a law school. It seeks to tie together the teaching, understanding and practice of law within the context of African culture. Until we begin to transform the law; to understand it is the knife which cuts the bread, then we have not yet started using the law as an effective tool for human development and advancement,” Prof Zvobgo said.
He said law had to be revamped to emancipate women as customary law ha been found wanting. “Only law can release women from permanent childhood, since women are regarded as minors from the cradle until death,” said Prof Zvobgo.
Prof Nhamo Mhiripiri hailed the naming of the law school after the late Chitepo, as he was both a lawyer and an artist.
“GZU is steeped not only in academia but its flagship is culture and heritage. (Herbert) Chitepo is a lawyer who had cultural footing and creativity. His Shona poem ‘Shoko risina musoro’ up to now sparks debate, others saying it’s the height of creative genius, while others say it was madness,” said Prof Mhiripiri.
The law school has a state-of-the-art moot court which the State will also use in trying cases. However, GZU is also driving national policies, particularly the national economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.
“On Zim-Asset we are pursuing the two clusters that fall within our niche, and these are Food Security and Nutrition and also the Infrastructure and Utilities cluster.
“The School of Natural Resources and Agriculture focuses on how our people can become self-sufficient in growing those crops that are traditionally known as part of African foods such as rapoko, millet and sorghum,” he said.
Small grain crops are drought-resistant and can solve food shortage, especially as climate change has made rainfall patterns erratic, leading to maize, the staple crop, being a perennial failure. There is also focus on educating citizens on how to take care of draught power, that is, donkeys and cattle.
“If you take away a donkey from a person in Chivi it’s like taking a camel from an Arab in the desert. We want a change of mindset, that sadza rezviyo is more nutritious than refined maize meal,” Prof Zvobgo said. He said on the Infrastructure and Utilities cluster they had acquired the former Mazorodze Clinic in Mucheke, and GZU is refurbishing it with state-of-the-art medical equipment.
“Treatment will be free, and we hope to be through by August,” said Prof Zvobgo.
He said opening a campus of the University in Mucheke was a deliberate effort not to alienate the university.
“In Mucheke when people open their curtains they see the university. The university is now their next door neighbour, not an ivory tower,” he said.
But a bigger miracle has been performed in Mashava. The mining ghost town has been resurrected from its economic death.
“We have re-energised Mashava. They used to access water once a week, now its every day. And we have lit up Mashava as regards electricity, and we built market stalls for citizens to sell goods and vegetables to students, and they don’t pay rent,” he said. Business in Masvingo is also singing a happy ballad due to the immense business the university has brought as regards construction, retail, and even vending.
“The economy of Masvingo has been transformed, businesses now have a partner in us, and the benefits are cascading to the ordinary man and woman,” he said.
And future plans?
He chuckles and leaning forward, says: “Build our university next to the Holy Shrine. That’s the University that will give us a face. The stand was officially opened by His Excellency, President Mugabe, and we remain focused on putting up that structure,” Prof Zvobgo says.
And judging by the litany of awards the university has garnered, he can do it.
They can do it. And by constantly initiating projects to benefit the people around it, GZU can be characterised as a university with a soul.
