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Fraudsters purporting to be education officials are on the prowl, swindling teachers facing disciplinary action by promising to help deal with their cases. The fraudsters are working in cahoots with some unscrupulous Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education officials, demanding payments of between US$150 and US$500 to help the teachers in their impending disciplinary cases. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president, confirmed the unscrupulous behaviour by some ministry officials.

Zimbabwean police arrested the Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister and his deputy on Wednesday for allegedly misappropriating around US$450,000 from a manpower development fund that finances students, among other activities. The politicians were questioned and released. Days before his arrest the minister – a former politics professor at the University of Zimbabwe and researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, which accused him of embezzling research funds – issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

Zimbabwe’s Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister is facing a probe over the alleged abuse of approximately US$450,000 meant for students in a development that has seen students calling for him to pay back the money and resign. According to a charge sheet prepared by the anti-graft commission, the minister is alleged to have used part of the money to fund cronies in his constituency as part of a bid to regain his seat in the 2018 general elections. His deputy, is alleged to have formed a company that benefitted from the student funds as universities were directed to buy equipment from his firm.

A human resources assistant in the Education ministry is in the courts after she fraudulently recruited 31 unqualified teachers. The accused is charged with 'Criminal abuse of office'. According to prosecutors, between October last year and February this year she connived with eight accomplices who have already appeared in court and hatched a plan to misrepresent to their employer and converted contracts to ‘indefinite conditions of service’ for teachers who would otherwise not have filled the required conditions.

The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education last week slammed the parents for paying Form One entrance examination fees saying they did that at their own peril as the Government has set an enrolment date for all the schools in the country. He said the entrance exams were banned long back by his ministry and have remained illegal and should not be left to continue. Enrolment of Form One students for next year started yesterday with parents expected to use their children's Grade Seven results.

A series of incriminating reports in 2015 indicate that corruption has hit several parts of the education sector. A countrywide audit being conducted by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has established that authorities have prejudiced schools of millions in levy scams. School authorities accused of embezzlement have been arrested and subsequently convicted, with some of them jailed for at least five years.

Harare is reportedly losing thousands of dollars in revenue as some of its schools are not remitting tuition fees to the local authority. The city has ordered investigations to be conducted on four schools and a crèche. A bursar at one of the schools is set to appear before a disciplinary committee to answer charges of abusing tuition fees.

The country's Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating the current Higher Education Minister after a number of graft accusations, and the Zimbabwe National Students Union, ZINASU, said he should resign or be fired by the President on the grounds that he was unfit to hold the portfolio.