Zimbabwe’s public universities are reeling under a US$100 million government debt after the authorities failed to pay student support funds following the looting of diamond revenues.
The failure to pay student support has caused severe operational challenges at 10 public universities.
The University of Zimbabwe, the country’s premier institution, recently disclosed that the government owed it nearly US$8 million for studies being undertaken by students under the state’s controversial support scheme.
Outlining the country’s 2012 budget in parliament last December, Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced a new student loan scheme for this year anchored on an expectation of the Treasury receiving US$600 million from diamond sales.
Biti has since said that the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, which is headed by one of President Robert Mugabe’s loyalists, has failed to fully account for all expected diamond proceeds, forcing him to revise his initial budget downwards.
The revision saw the proposed new loan scheme being scrapped due to lack of funds, with the old cadetship support programme continuing. But now the government is also defaulting on its pledge to pay universities student funds under the old scheme.
In an interview last week Zecharia Mushawatu, information and publicity secretary of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), said some students were being barred from lectures as a result of the government’s failure to deliver.
The government has said universities must not expel students affected by its payment failures – an order that has been ignored by some university authorities.
Mushawatu said some students were dropping out or deferring subjects pending the mobilisation of resources by government.
He said his union, the biggest student representative body in the country, wants the government to honour payments under the cadetship programme, before scrapping it to pave the way for the new grant and loan scheme starting in January next year.
“As ZINASU we demand that the government must pay the debts, but starting next year it should do away with the cadetship programme and introduce a grant and loan scheme. The cadetship programme pays three-quarters of the fees that are required, but most of the students are impoverished," said Mushawatu.
“When most of the ministers in government today went to college, they benefited from a grant and loan scheme that provided full fees and payouts. We want that to continue.”
Zimbabwe’s government is cash strapped. Cabinet held an emergency meeting in July to address its financial problems, but they persist. Mugabe has told the Supreme Court that the state does not even have enough money to hold elections.
ZINASU has also called on Mugabe urgently to appoint a new higher education minister to tackle the funding crisis, following last month’s death of Stan Mudenge, who held that portfolio.
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