Vice-Chancellor held over Grace Mugabe’s 'PhD'

University of Zimbabwe Vice-Chancellor Levi Nyagura was detained by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on Friday night over the awarding of a PhD to former First Lady Grace Mugabe. According to the charge sheet‚ Nyagura 'recommended without the approval of the university council' that the wife of ousted Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe be awarded the degree. The Standard reports that Nyagura, represented by Advocate Lewis Uhiri, appeared in a Harare court on Saturday. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded to 5 March on $200 bail. As part of his bail conditions, he was ordered not to interfere with state witnesses who include lecturers. A TimesLIVE report notes that the university's sociology department in January petitioned the commission to look into the matter‚ which it described as suspicious. The petition said the award was ‘a shock to many members of the department’ and that most members had only heard of Mugabe's graduation in the media. It added that department staff had not seen Mugabe's research proposal‚ progress reports or the outcome of any research.

– TimesLIVE

Full report in The Standard