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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.

At least seven students died and 39 were injured when their university building was caught on fire. The accident occurred because the university, short of money, had rented out the building's lower three floors as office space, blocking the fire exits. As the chief of fire control of the Russian Federation Ministry of Emergency Situation, declared, the university lacked fire alarms, so the emergency services were notified too late.