A senior University of Zimbabwe (UZ) official has been suspended for allegedly providing President Robert Mugabe with a small cap of knowledge during the recent graduation ceremony.
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
Deputy registrar (academic), Ngaatendwe Takawira has since filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking the stay of a disciplinary hearing against her, which started on Monday this week, and is set to continue today if the application is not granted in her favour.
Takawira is being charged with contravening section 4 (a) of Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006.
“The charge letter specifies that the vice-chancellor (Levi Nyagura) instructed me to procure a new cap for the Chancellor since I had provided a small cap in 2014 for the Chancellor. It is also alleged that I failed to procure the correct-sized caps for the Chancellor for the 2015 graduation ceremony,” she said in her founding affidavit.
Takawira, however, argued that she was not the one who had procured Mugabe’s headgear and also maintained that the cap Mugabe wore for this year’s graduation ceremony fitted snugly.
“As I have indicated above, the reports that were compiled, more specifically the registrar’s report, show that the registrar is the one who interacted with the Chancellor’s office for the purpose of getting the correct size for the Chancellor’s headgear,” she argues.
“Further, the said report shows that the 2014 cap that the Chancellor eventually wore for the 2015 graduation ceremony fitted perfectly well.”
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Takawira said following an investigation by herself, the registrar, examinations officer and a Mrs Motsi compiling reports, she was charged and invited to attend a disciplinary hearing on October 26, 2015.
“I aver that a perusal of the said reports shows that no one in the said reports imputes any fault on me,” she said. “The said reports clearly show that at all material times I acted on the instruction of the Vice-Chancellor with respect to searching for the cap that the Chancellor had used in the previous graduation ceremonies and finally instructing that a new cap be procured by the registrar, with respect to sizes for the cap.
“The said reports also reveal that I had the caps for the Chancellor made as per the sizes that the registrar gave me.”
In his certificate of urgency, Harare lawyer, Tatenda Nhemachena, urged the court to grant the application, arguing there were forces that were “baying for Takawira’s blood” and as such, the hearing would not be fair and impartial. “My reasons for the above position are that the said committee is made up of people who are all, except for the council member, subordinates of the university Vice-Chancellor. This committee is also handpicked by the vice-chancellor,” Nhemachena said.
“The allegation of misconduct was raised by the vice-chancellor and he is the one who caused the investigations into the matter and then formally charged the applicant. The vice-chancellor is also the one who instructed that the cap in question be searched for and when it could not be found, he instructed that a new one be procured.”
“The above shows that the vice-chancellor is an active participant in the whole transaction from start to finish. The perception created in the eyes of the ordinary or reasonable man is that the disciplinary committee chosen by the vice-chancellor, who is very much involved in the case, will not discharge its duties fairly.” The matter is yet to be allocated a judge at the High Court.
Takawira was suspended early this month facing charges of violating sections of the Labour Act in that she “failed to provide an appropriate cap for the Chancellor’s graduation academic attire”, which resulted in the delay of the 2015 graduation ceremony by 45 minutes.
The suspension letter signed by Nyagura also reveals that the delay caused an “embarrassing situation for the Chancellor and the vice-chancellor” after Takawira provided them with “small caps”.
Advocate Thabani Mpofu, with instructions from Mawere, Sibanda Legal Practitioners, is representing Takawira. Takawira has been the UZ’s deputy registrar (academic) since 1996.
