Students slam Chinese language institute at UZ as a waste

By Lance Guma
31 August 2006

The National Students Union in Zimbabwe has described the setting up of a Chinese language institute at the University of Zimbabwe as a waste of resources. ZINASU national co-ordinator Washington Katema says the university already has a foreign languages department which is struggling to get students for subjects like German, French and others yet the government has gone ahead with co-sponsoring another white elephant.

On Wednesday the University of Zimbabwe officially established the 85th Chinese language institute in the world on their campus. Jointly built by the Chinese language council and the UZ, the Confucius Institute will teach the Chinese language and culture. While officials from Mugabe’s government harped on about the development increasing cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries, the student body says it marks the further colonisation of the country by China. Katema pointed out that the primary instinct of the Chinese is to exploit Zimbabwe’s resources and the government was going along for political reasons.