(HERALD) Southern Rhodesia bombshell

Southern Rhodesia bombshell
Sunday, 25 September 2011 00:3
By Busani Ncube

ZIMBABWEAN students at a university in the Netherlands got the shock of their lives when they received their academic results reflecting that they are citizens of Southern Rhodesia.

Zwelithini Viki, the first to express profound shock, a law student at Maastricht University, vented his anger on the online social network, Facebook, giving an account of the incident last Wednesday afternoon, stating:

“I feel insulted and strongly offended that my university still refers to my country by a colonial name, Southern Rhodesia . . . I am heading to the student services centre to lodge a complaint right away,” he fumed.

Incredibly, three other Zimbabwean students at the university namely — Shaun Matsheza, Shingi Chamba and Farai Gomwe — noticed the same humiliating “blunder” on their certificates. The students had just received results and certificates for their study programmes.

The three expressed shock and Viki advised them via Facebook to go and get their “nationality” corrected.

Replying to the post, Matsheza said: “I also felt rather offended by that.”

Viki then advised his Zimbabwean colleagues that the student services centre had told him to scan his certificates and Zimbabwean passport and send it to “ study@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Affected students are in programmes ranging from Law to Media at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Contacted for comment on Friday, Viki said: “I went to the administration office and they advised me that they would address the problem.

“They have not done so, and I and others have already surrendered the wrong certificates to the college for correction,” he said.

When asked for a copy of the “wrong certificates”, he replied: “Sorry bro, I have surrendered the certificates to the college, you can ask them. I never made photocopies, unfortunately.”

Contacted by The Sunday Mail for comment by e-mail, Maastricht University’s student services centre’s Press officer in the marketing and communications department, Ms Caroline Roulaux, wrote in full: “In reply to your enquiry, we can confirm that a few students recently received a Certificate of Enrolment with their nationality misprinted as ‘Southern Rhodesia’ instead of ‘Zimbabwe’.

“This was caused by an impaired link between several administrative systems. We are still looking into the source of what appears to be a technical error.

“We understand — and deeply regret — that the students perceived this not just as an administrative mistake but experienced this as an offence. Maastricht University has sent a letter to the afflicted students to apologise.”

Sources within the MDC-T said most of the affected students are on scholarships they got through the party’s backers who are based in the Netherlands.

The name Southern Rhodesia was a creation of racist colonial conquest. Zambia last used the name Northern Rhodesia at the collapse of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1964. Between 1964 and 1980, Zimbabwe reverted to the name Rhodesia until independence in 1980.

For the past 47 years, the name Southern Rhodesia has never been officially used in reference to Zimbabwean citizens. Most Zimbabweans consider it an insult of the worst kind to be referred to as “Rhodesians”. - The Sunday Mail