Zimbabwe: 'President can do without honorary degrees'
Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007News Editor
The Herald
BRITISH and American universities intending to withdraw honorary degrees conferred on President Mugabe are free to do so because he did not solicit for the honour in the first place, a Government official said yesterday.
Presidential spokesman and Information and Publicity Secretary Cde George Charamba said Cde Mugabe has seven degrees which he read for and the honorary ones were an unsolicited honour he can do without.
Cde Charamba's statement follows reports on anti-Government online news services claiming that two American and one British universities were considering petitions to strip President Mugabe of honorary degrees conferred on him.
The website &nquote; newzimbabwe.com &nquote; quoted officials as saying Edinburgh University in Scotland, the University of Massachusetts and the Michigan State University were carrying out the review because of alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
But Cde Charamba said the President does not suffer from a crisis of academic achievement and will not lose sleep over the threat by the universities.
"President Mugabe has read for seven degrees. He has honorary degrees from Africa, Asia, former Eastern Europe, Europe and America.
"Honorary degrees are exactly that, an unsolicited honour from the giver.
"The President did not accost anyone to confer the honour.
"If anything, those Western universities improved their international profile by associating themselves with the President," Cde Charamba said.
He added: "It is not like the President suffers a crisis of achievement. He has seven solid degrees which are more than enough to earn him a living and recognition. He does not lose sleep over the threats."
The reports said Scottish MP Nigel Griffiths was to personally present Edinburgh University chiefs with a "dossier" spelling out why the Zimbabwean President should be stripped of his honorary degree.
Griffiths last week tabled a parliamentary motion calling for the award to be revoked, and has now asked for an early meeting with principal Tim O'Shea to discuss the subject.
Edinburgh conferred Cde Mugabe the honorary degree in 1984.
The reports said Michigan State University, which gave Cde Mugabe honorary degrees in 1984 and 1990, has also received similar petitions.
Terry Denbow, a Michigan State spokesman, said: "There have been discussions, but I know of no formal process for rescinding the degree."
Bill Wright, a spokesman for UMass president Jack Wilson, said university officials and trustees were "just in the discussion phase" about what to do with Cde Mugabe's degree.
If they decide they want to withdraw the honour, it is not likely to happen anytime soon.
While the university has a detailed procedure for awarding the degrees, there is no process for taking one back.
But Michael Thelwell, a professor in the UMass Afro-American studies department, and others cautioned against revoking the degree just to appease President Mugabe's critics.
"The task of intellectuals is to seek the truth, not to be swayed by pressures of the moment," said Bill Strickland, a UMass politics professor.Printer friendly version
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