adminDuring the event Vice-President John Nkomo donated a two tonne tipper truck and 20 tonnes of seed to the new university. “Gwanda State University will be opening its doors in January. That is not a joke and there is no reverse to that project,” said Governor Masuku, who is also patron of the institution.
“VP Nkomo has opened the door for the university by giving us this donation and no one should shut this door. By August next year we will start enrolling the students.”
In an interview on the sidelines of the event the chairman of the five-member taskforce in charge of the establishment of GSU, Professor Callistus Ndlovu, said his team was awaiting the approval of the university bill by Parliament before they start recruiting the core staff.
“The bill was submitted to Parliament through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education. We hope it will be processed soon, so that by January we start operating.
“Once the Government approves the bill we will be able to recruit the core staff, such as the registrar, the librarian and of course the vice chancellor. This will be done immediately,” said Prof Ndlovu.
He said the university will start with two faculties, the Faulty of Mining Engineering and the Faculty of Agriculture and then later on add the Faculty of Industrial Management.
Prof Ndlovu said the donation by VP Nkomo will go a long way towards boosting efforts to establish the university.
He said the institution was given 2,5 hectares of land in Filabusi by Government for its farming projects.
Prof Ndlovu said the project has received resounding support from local businesspeople and general members of the community who made pledges in the form of cattle.
He said the taskforce team would soon be conducting fundraising activities in Bulawayo as part of efforts to get more resources to build the university
Matabeleland South, Manicaland and Mashonaland East are the only provinces in the country that do not have state universities.
The only university in Matabeleland South is the Seventh-Day Adventist Church-run Solusi University.
The proposed university is expected to temporarily operate from the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College while construction of the university campus is underway at the place adjacent to the college.
Gwanda Town Council has already donated 87 hectares of land towards the building of the university on the eastern side of the JM Nkomo Polytechnic.
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education appointed Prof Ndlovu the chairman of the taskforce on the establishment of the university.
Among the committee members is Bulawayo-based businessperson Mr Obert Sibanda, Labour Court president Justice Selo Nare and two other members and officials from the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education.
The idea to establish Gwanda State University was mooted sometime in 2004 and since then consultations were being made with suggestions that the JM Nkomo Polytechnic be turned into a university.
Prof Ndlovu has an illustrious academic profile. He worked as a lecturer at the Hofspra University in the United States for 13 years where he was the director of African Studies.
At the moment he is the director general of the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and management, which trains senior civil servants.
Online Reporter