WHILE not one university in the country has introduced a mandatory course in ‘African Studies’ that would raise greater awareness of African issues, ‘Peace and Conflict Studies’ is a mandatory course at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo.
What is ironic is that NUST was established to focus on the training of scientists who would service the manufacturing and related industries.
Making ‘Peace Studies’ a mandatory course at such an institution confirms at least two serious problems, namely, that the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) is sleeping on the job and that NUST’s Council and the Vice-Chancellor require urgent reorientation.
Peace Leadership and Conflict Transformation (PLC 1101 if first semester) or (PLC 1201 if second semester), is a first year course which was first introduced in 2009 for every student at NUST whether they are pursuing a degree in natural sciences or any other.
Being a mandatory course, failing it means one cannot graduate.
The question is how does ZIMCHE, whose role is to exercise oversight on programmes of our universities, justify the emphasis on Peace Studies at NUST?
True to character of the teaching staff of Peace Studies in all our universities, the lecturers of PLC 1101/PLC 1201 at NUST, Kudakwashe Chirambwi, (founder and coordinator), Octavious Chido Masunda, David Foya and Ndakaitei Makwanise are active participants in the Regime Sector.
As graduates of Africa University’s Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance (IPLG), they all are Pamela Machakanja’s students.
In other words, these are people which the country has lost to the service of the whiteman.
To prove our point below we review some of the activities of Kudakwashe Chirambwi and one of the senior lecturers, Octavious Chido Masunda.
Kudakwashe Chirambwi is the founder and coordinator of Peace, Leadership and Conflict Transformation Programme at NUST.
Currently he is at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom pursuing a PhD in Peace Studies.
Bradford is the university where Pamela Machakanja obtained at least four postgraduate qualifications in Peace and Security Studies and appears to be the premier British academic institution charged with the responsibility to transform African students into champions of self-hate and Afrophobia for the benefit of the whiteman.
Britain exercises influence in Zimbabwe through Bradford.
This is exactly what Richard Dowden means when he says the one window left for Britain to exercise influence in Zimbabwe is education.
In the UK, Chirambwi has presented ‘research papers’ on alleged privatisation of the security sector and violence in Zimbabwe.
In one of his recent ‘research papers’, Chirambwi lambasts the country’s security sector, and advocates security sector reforms as a way to end ‘violence’ in Zimbabwe.
Like all Zimbabweans whose patriotism has been drained by the whiteman’s regime change agenda, Chirambwi gives prominence to tribalism and Gukurahundi in his analyses.
Currently, Chirambwi is also researching into the indigenous conflict transformation methods among the Kalanga tribes in Zimbabwe.
In the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector, Chirambwi is a programmes officer at the Peace in Action Trust (PAT).
Chirambwi is also secretary at the Zimbabwe Peace and Security Education and Training Network (ZIPSET) whose anti-country activities we have covered in this series.
(David Makwerere from Bindura University, is acting secretary while Chirambwi is studying in the UK).
The ZIPSET is chaired by Munyaradzi Nyakudya, Head of the History Department at the University of Zimbabwe.
In a letter dated April 7 2014, addressed to ZIPSET members, Nyakudya implores all the members to go full force in implementing Security Sector Governance/Reform knowledge they had gained at Wits School of Governance.
“To start with, the capacity building training we received should now see us go full out to implement the key objective for which we established our network, that is, the mainstreaming of SSG/R in our respective curricula,” writes Nyakudya.
“The next stage for us is to develop a generic SSG/R curriculum from which members can develop curricula specifically suited for their own institutions.”
One of the pioneer lecturers of PLC course at NUST is Octavious Chido Masunda.
Before deployment at NUST, Masunda served in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in the office of the Deputy Sheriff and Messenger of the Court.
He is on the Advisory Board of the United Movement to End Child Soldiering, an international organisation that works to end child soldiering in the Great Lakes region.
His research interests are in the areas of youth and democracy, violence, reconciliation and peace building.
Masunda has presented research papers critical of government at international, regional and local conferences by way of promoting regime change against President Mugabe and ZANU PF.
In 2013, In Wageningen, Netherlands, Masunda presented a paper titled, Post-conflict Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe: An evaluation of Zimbabwe’s Organ for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration as a reconciliation strategy and totally rubbished the role of the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration as a ‘reconciliation strategy’.
A month later in South Africa, Western Cape at the Constitution-Building in Africa Conference, he presented another paper, The Global Political Agreement (GPA) Constitution Making Process in Zimbabwe: A New People-Driven Constitution or a Misnomer?
In this paper, Masunda argues the COPAC constitution-making process was not people-driven, hence Zimbabwe does not have a new people-driven democratic constitution.
He totally ignores the March 2013 referendum and focuses mainly on the squabbles of COPAC.
In the same month, Masunda attended another conference in Kenya where he made a presentation purporting that Zimbabwe’s youth was violent.
Earlier on in June he had attended a similar conference in Durban, South Africa, where he presented an equally negative paper.
In 2013 alone, Masunda attended more than six regional and international conferences.
Masunda is again scheduled to attend this year’s peace conference in Wageningen, Netherlands slated for October 7-15 2015.
His presentations are compiled into journal articles with financial support from NGOs such as George Soros’ OSISA, Community Law Centre, Ford Foundation and Centre for Human Rights.
His many trips around the world are obviously not funded by NUST, but OSISA and other negative forces.