From WN

The higher education minister announced Wednesday Zimbabwe’s government plans to develop a $1 billion university named after 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe — a move receiving criticism by the opposition who say it is a waste of resources, according to Reuters.

Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Jonathan Moyo said Robert Gabriel Mugabe University will target science and technology and have a facility focusing on research and “transformative and revolutionary leadership.”

“Cabinet has approved a grant of $800 million towards the construction of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University and a grant of $200 million towards the University Endowment Fund for research and innovation,” Moyo said.

Mugabe and his wife Grace Mugabe will be the founding trustees of the university and will be built outside the capital of Harare, the report said.

Although Mugabe reign was promising, the ageing leader was accused of destroying the economy of the former breadbasket of the area through socialist policies such as the confiscation of white-owned farms, the report said.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) criticized the proposal saying Mugabe’s government should be improving existing underfunded universities around the country.

Students at state-run universities and colleges struggle with low accommodations and failing infrastructure and the government does not provide grants to help universities, the report said.

Formal unemployment is more than 90 percent and graduates are forced to acquire informal jobs, mostly selling goods on the streets or finding jobs in neighboring countries to pay for their college education, the report said.

“This is populism that defies logic. It is meant to stroke Mugabe’s ego because we know this government is broke,” MDC spokesman Obert Gutu said.

Zimbabwe is having difficulty paying its workers and spends more than 90 percent of its national budget on salaries which leaves very little over for roads, hospitals and education, according to Reuters.

— WN.com, Jubilee Baez

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