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(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti blocks Mugabe scholarship funds

Biti blocks Mugabe scholarship funds
by Staff Reporter
13/02/2011 00:00:00

FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti says he has blocked treasury funding for the President Robert Mugabe’s scholarship scheme which has sent hundreds of students to study at universities in South Africa.

Biti said the cash-strapped government did not have the funds to support the scheme which he described as a Mugabe’s private initiative.

"It's a private trust and we will not fund it. We have not funded it since I became minister,” Biti was reported by local media as saying.

Established several years ago and funded by the state, the Presidential Scholarship Scheme was aimed at helping talented young Zimbabweans from poor backgrounds get to access university education.

However, Biti said he has not funded the scheme since he came into office.

"It is a fund created for sentimental reasons to take students to Fort Hare, so we cannot fund it. Besides we don't have the money," Biti said.

"The president wanted us to fund it to the tune of $54-million yet it's private, just like the Reagan Foundation and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation."

Critics claim the scheme now the exclusive preserve of Zanu-PF officials, senior civil servants, soldiers and war veterans who are rewarded for their loyalty to Mugabe.

Beneficiaries are sent to various South African Universities such as the universities of Witwatersrand, Rhodes, Cape Town and Fort Hare where Mugabe got his law degree.

Higher education minister, Stan Mudenge said there were other ways of funding the programme.

"The president will find the money elsewhere if Biti does not pay for the scheme," he said.

Labels: ROBERT MUGABE, TENDAI BITI

posted by MrK @ 5:57 AM