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The university students in Zimbabwe are tired by “fraudulent stances’’ taken by the government and the empty promises of receiving their US$100 allowances for living. According to the secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, the former minister of higher and tertiary education, and his deputy are subjects of a forensic investigation into the possible looting of funds meant for tertiary education students.

Academics, student unions and opposition parties have condemned the creation by Zimbabwean President of a new ministry – of National Scholarships – against the backdrop of the country’s ongoing economic woes. The appointment of a fully-fledged ministry will pave the way for budgetary allocations in the 2018 budget expected to be tabled in parliament before the end of the year. Critics have said that said the ministry of scholarships was not necessary and that the creation of a new ministry was an attempt by the president and his party ZANU-PF to create “new jobs for the boys”.

Zimbabwe’s Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister has lost his Constitutional Court bid to overturn his arrest on charges of allegedly misappropriating around US$450,000 from a manpower development fund that finances students, among other activities. The minister is facing the allegations alongside the Deputy Minister and the Finance Director of Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF). ZIMDEF was established through an act of parliament to fund human capital development.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs last week interviewed three agencies that recruit and offer scholarships to local students to study abroad. The meeting came in the wake of revelations that a number of Zimbabwean locals have been falling prey to dubious agencies based in Harare who offer fake university scholarships to study in Cyprus with most students ending up stranded in the island country. Many of these students end up being forced into crime and prostitution in order to survive and pay for their tuition. The Zimbabwean Government is currently seeking the release and extradition of three Zimbabwean students who are held in prison in Cyprus for drug trafficking.

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.

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.

Nationwide school audits were this year expected to cover over 80 percent of the 8 179 schools in the country, of which 5 805 are primary schools, while 2 374 are secondary schools. While the exercise has so far been producing results and unearthing massive irregularities and abuse of funds at Government school institutions, there are reports that schools are being asked to fund the exercise.

The ongoing Government audit of schools across the country has unearthed massive abuse of levies collected from parents and guardians purportedly to fund development of learning infrastructure. From the 1 800 (18 percent) schools audited so far, there are indications of massive doctoring of accounting records by the schools.

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.