Two judges for Nyagura’s reset hearing

Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent
Two High Court judges will preside over the hearing of former University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Vice Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura after his application for review was removed from the roll last week.

Nyagura is facing criminal abuse of office charges after he allegedly awarded former First Lady Grace Mugabe a Doctor of Philosophy degree unprocedurally .

His application for review was brought for hearing before Justice Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa last week.

Through his lawyer, Mr Sylvester Hashiti, Nyagura applied to have the matter determined by two judges instead of one and it was granted, resulting in the matter being removed from the roll.

This comes after Nyagura approached the High Court in April last year seeking an order to nullify acting Chief Magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi’s ruling dismissing his application to have the charges dropped on the basis that they were not in accordance with the law.

In his founding affidavit, Nyagura said the State had no power to prosecute him over the matter.

“The State has no locus standi to institute the proceedings and the criminal court had no jurisdiction over the matter. The acts complained of remain valid under the Maxim Omnia Praesumuntur Rite Esse (all things are presumed to have been done rightly) Act with the administrative authorities reposed with the powers to supervise decisions under the UZ Act stating that no criminal complaint arose in the matter,” Nyagura said.

He denied the existence of personal liability under the UZ Act.

“The university and the chancellor are the answerable entities at law to decisions made by the university. The remedy against extant administrative decisions is an administrative as opposed to a criminal one. Allegations are incapable of constituting a criminal offence at law,” Nyagura said.

The court heard that sometime in 2011, Nyagura single-handedly accepted and approved Mrs Mugabe’s application to study for a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Sociology without the knowledge and recommendations of the departmental board and faculty of higher degrees committee in violation of UZ quality assurance guidelines and benchmark.