Grace PhD saga spills into the courts

The students accuse Central Intelligence Organisation operatives of trying to silence them to avoid embarrassing the president’s wife. Avoid Masiraha, ZINASU spokesperson, told The Zimbabwean that they were pursuing the legal route to protect the University of Zimbabwe’s integrity.

“We are interested in establishing the facts about how Grace acquired the doctorate. What is important is to put the record straight and get the evidence that she actually sweated for the qualification like everybody else,” said Masiraha.

They initially tried to get Parliament to probe circumstances surrounding the awarding of the degree to Grace, but the clerk of Parliament has told them it is not within the august body’s remit to do so.

Following the students’ outcry about how Grace could have earned the achievement without there being an official record of her research project, let alone setting foot on the UZ campus, CIO operatives visited the residences of ZINASU members and tried to threaten them into silence.

Sources at the UZ revealed that in a bid to silence the students on the Grace PhD, the CIO and Zanu (PF) manipulated the recent UZ Students’ Representative elections through vote buying and intimidation. This tipped the scales in favour of the pro-Zanu (PF) ZICOSU, which prevailed over the democratic and popular ZINASU.

Observers said Grace’s countrywide rallies at which she discredited Vice President Joice Mujuru were meant to divert the people’s attention from the “fraudulent PhD”.

Edington Mugova, founder of Reveal for Peace Zimbabwe, said the PhD issue remained a national disgrace as the UZ authorities had not yet clarified how it was obtained.