Zimbabwe: Mugabe Scholarship Scheme Collapses

President Robert Mugabe has stopped enrolling students under the Presidential Scholarship Fund due to non-availability of funds to bankroll the programme.

The scheme's administrators admitted there was no money to pay for new students or meet the needs of the thousands already on the scheme despite Mugabe holding a $5 million wedding for his daughter this year.

Zanu PF also threw a $1 million party in February to celebrate its leader's 90th birthday and yet the government says it owes South African universities a similar amount.

Chris Mushowe, Fund director, revealed that the programme has suspended enrolling fresh students until it pays off debts to South African universities where beneficiaries are studying.

Zimbabwe owes South African universities R11 million (US$1 million) hence it has decided to suspended enrolling further students until it clears the arrears.

Over 4,000 students are studying in South Africa, but in the last few years many have been exposed to poverty and other social ills as the cash-strapped government failed to pay living allowances to cater for their basic needs.

Some, especially girls, have been forced to resort to prostitution to raise money to survive.

The Scholarship Programme was founded in 1995 to give academically gifted students from poor families a chance to study at South African universities.

But since the collapse of the local economy, the government has been finding it hard to pay tuition fees in time, resulting in some universities refusing to admit the students into their residency compounds.