A senior official in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) has said former first lady Grace Mugabe never enrolled for a PhD degree at the institution.
The official, Dr Watch Ruparanganda, who is a witness in the trial of suspended UZ Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura, told a Harare court that as a chair of the Department Grace was allegedly in, he should have been informed of Grace’s enrolment for a PhD.
Dr Ruparanganda expressed discontent over the manner Grace was awarded the degree as the ‘student’ was unknown to staffers. He said:
Some of the duties of my board was to ensure that the enrolment of the students is in accordance with the regulations.
I don’t even know Grace Mugabe and even if she was here she wouldn’t have known me, she just appeared from nowhere, and it was through grapevine that I heard that she was graduating with a PHD degree.
As the board, we were supposed to have known her qualifications to avoid enrolling standard six students.
Mugabe was supposed to have seen me as the chairman like what other candidates like Thokozani Khupe did.
Dr Ruparanganda claimed that Professor Nyagura chose his unqualified friend to supervise Mrs Mugabe who he described as a ghost student.
Professor Nyagura maintains the PhD is genuine.
More: Pindula News; The Herald