Great Zimbabwe University Vice chancellor arrested at gunpoint

By Violet Gonda
30 September 2005

The Vice Chancellor of Great Zimbabwe University, Dr Hilda Marima-Matarira has been arrested at gunpoint in Harare . She is the first woman Vice Chancellor in Zimbabwe. On Friday, we got an urgent call from her daughter, Tariro who is based in London saying her mother was under house arrest in Zimbabwe. When we called Dr Matarira, she was being escorted by a convoy of armed police to Borrowdale police station.

Although the police were harassing her during our conversation, she was able to tell us that she is being victimised by some senior government officials, because she is a woman. The Vice Chancellor told us the police, who had been surrounding her house since Thursday, showed her a charge sheet stating that Governor Josiah Hungwe had also been arrested.

The Herald reported on Saturday that Dr Marima- Matarira has been arrested in connection with alleged theft of property worth billions of dollars belonging to the collapsed institution of higher learning.
According to the Herald, armed police raided a house in Borrawdale where she was staying and impounded property believed to have been allegedly stolen from the defunct university.

But the Vice Chancellor said the issue does not have anything to do with her work but was political. As the first woman Vice Chancellor, she claims that there are people threatened by the fact that she is a woman heading a university. She alleged that Washington Mbizo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Higher Education threatened her saying: “.. this is an African government and we have ways to deal with you.”

Dr Matarira said there has been a lot of interference by government officials at the university which resulted in the Permanent Secretary shutting academic activities of the university in June 2004.

The police kept telling her to switch off her phone when she was talking to this reporter, but the feisty woman, who says police have been threatening in their treatment, managed to shout out that word must be spread that she is being victimised because she is a woman.

The police switched off her phone during the conversation and we have not been able to get any more details about what is transpiring.

Efforts to get the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Higher Education were fruitless. The police refuse to comment.