Herald Reporter

STATE universities set up in various provinces should not
select students along regional lines but should be open to
every Zimbabwean, President Mugabe said yesterday.

The President said this at State House while sending off 229
students awarded Presidential Scholarships to study at Fort
Hare University, South Africa.

"The work of setting up State universities is ongoing as each
and every province is entitled to a university, which should
be cherished by the province as a developmental thing but is
not owned by the province but by the State," said Cde Mugabe

"The people in that province cannot claim that only people
from the province should enroll at that institution, because
first and foremost we are Zimbabweans."

He said it was Government policy to assist every child to
attain Ordinary Level because education was every child’s
right.

"The right to education should never be qualified by politics
or anything but it is an undeniable right. Every child has a
right to State aided institutions to learn for 11 years and
thereafter it is up to an individual’s decision.

‘’We have compelled ourselves to teach a child up to Form
Four thereafter it’s up to an individual depending on his
aptitude."

The President urged the students to be good ambassadors of
the country, their families and themselves as well.

"Going to the university means you are going on a mission
being sent by your country, the Government and that mission
means studying, working hard," he said.

"If some other creatures develop in you, which is laziness,
drinking and smoking, getting addicted, dishonesty and
untruthfulness, I must tell you that this is not the creature
we are sending to Fort Hare."

He said many students who had been sent to Fort Hare
acquitted themselves well as most passed their studies with
distinctions and were now leaders in different social
endeavours.

"We want you to be learned because Zimbabwe wants enlightened
leadership, even in politics," he said. The President also
gave a brief background of Fort Hare, and other universities
in South Africa, saying he also studied at Rhodes University
and Fort Hare.

"I studied at Rhodes University, and when I was there
studying at the university I did not know that one day I
shall be fighting him (Rhodes)," he said.

Director of the programme, Cde Christopher Mushowe, who is
also the Minister of Transport and Communication, said the
scholarship targeted talented but disadvantaged students
intending to pursue undergraduate studies and also covers
postgraduate studies.

The scholarship, launched in 1995 arose from the President’s
sentimental attachment to Fort Hare University where he
studied his first degree.