Hong Kong University has rejected growing calls to send home Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's daughter, Bona Mugabe, who is studying there under an assumed name. The presence of the dictator's daughter in Hong Kong became known after her mother, Grace Mugabe, assaulted photographer Tsim Sha Tsui while shopping in theAround the world, universities have been under pressure to revoke
honorary degrees awarded to Robert Mugabe and government’s to expel
individuals linked to his autocratic government.
His daughter’s presence in Hong Kong was first revealed by the South
China Morning Post, despite efforts to mask her presence. Bona Mugabe
has never made political statements in Zimbabwe, but has attended
political rallies addressed by her father.
"We believe that education should be above politics and young people
should not be denied the right to education because of their family
background or what their parents have done," a Hong Kong University
spokesperson was quoted as saying in the local press. Legislator Emily
Lau Wai-hing called for a debate over the admission of students such as
Bona Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) has since launched a
campaign to pressure China to deport young Bona Mugabe. In a petition
delivered to the Chinese ambassador in Harare on 27 January, Zinasu
said she should return and attend university with other students in
Zimbabwe who are suffering because of her father’s policies.
She should, said Zinasu in the petition, "come and suffer with other
patriotic students studying in state universities. The state of the
education system is so deplorable that the President has seen it fit to
trust the Chinese with the education of his daughter whilst ordinary
students are failing to get a decent education."
The petition outlined a litany of problems that have hit the education
system hard and prompted Mugabe’s government to take action – such as
charging university fees in United States dollars, the brain drain,
suppression of academic freedom and the failure of some students to
write examinations because of industrial action.
"Zinasu demands the return of Bona Mugabe as a way of mounting pressure
on President Mugabe to resuscitate the once prestigious education
system," the petition concluded.
The latest campaign follows one last year that resulted in the Botswana
government deporting Mugabe propagandist and University of Botswana
media studies lecturer, Ceaser Zvayi. Prior to working in Botswana,
Zvayi was political editor of the state-run The Herald newspaper, and
he was slapped with targeted sanctions by the European Union for hate
speech that fanned violence against Mugabe’s political opponents during
which hundreds of people died.
Universities in the United States and the United Kingdom have revoked
degrees awarded to Mugabe. Last year, Australia deported eight students
with links to members of Mugabe’s government, including the children of
Commissioner General of Police Augustine Chihuri and Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono, saying it wanted to prevent people involved in
human rights abuses giving their children education denied to ordinary
Zimbabweans. In recent years, government officials have opted to send
their children to universities in Asia, mainly Malaysia.
Opposition officials have jumped on the bandwagon of sending their
children to foreign institutions. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change and now Prime Minister-designate in an
envisaged power-sharing government with Mugabe, sent his daughter to
university in Australia to escape plummeting standards at local
institutions.
Local analysts have said the campaign to bring back Mugabe’s daughter
is unlikely to succeed, citing China’s refusal to censure him as
exemplified by its blocking of debate on Zimbabwe by the United nations
Security Council.
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