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Founding Midlands State University (MSU) Vice-Chancellor Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe, who died yesterday, has been declared a national hero in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Zimbabwean academic sector.
Bhebhe, an academic, a great teacher and a committed nationalist, died at the age of 81.
In his condolence message last night, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said news of Prof Bhebhe’s death left him devastated.
“An academic of international renown, and a founding, long-time Vice Chancellor of Midlands State University, MSU, the late Professor Bhebhe was an outstanding teacher and scholar through whom successive generations of historians passed, all to subsequently make great names for themselves in their own right, and at various institutions in our SADC region and the World at large,” he said.
“I worked very closely with Professor Bhebhe at every stage from the inception to the development of Midlands State University as a full-fledged, multi-departmental institution which grew steeped in the national ethos. Together, we transformed MSU from being a pre-eminently academic-orientated institution as was the tradition then, to being research-led and solution-driven.”
President Mnangagwa thanked Prof Bhebhe for his immense contribution to making MSU University which is now at the forefront of transforming higher education into a catalyst for national development, by generating durably-tested solutions in line with Vision 2030 of an empowered upper-middle-income society.
“We forever will be indebted to him for this outstanding vision, which was always tempered by a bend towards the urgent practicalities of our nation.”
Mnangagwa added, “I recall his outstanding leadership in compiling the Zimbabwean Chapter on African Liberation Struggle history, to give us a tome which is a must-read for all nationally aware citizens of our continent. This monumental work was interspersed by numerous other projects we repeatedly assigned to him as Government,” said President Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwe remains indebted to Prof Bhebhe for several researched portraits of national icons, among them the late Benjamin Burombo, and the first Vice President of Zimbabwe, the late Dr Simon Muzenda.
Added the President: “His research into the Ndebele State before colonization, and on the role of the Presbyterian Mission in the Midlands Province under successive colonial governments, added a rich, authoritative chapter to our history as a people.
“He will be sorely missed by our country’s community of researchers, and by the numerous PhD students he supervised as a Professor Emeritus at MSU, and before then, as a leading lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.
The MSU is now a multi-campus university with campuses in Harare, Zvishavane and Gweru, its headquarters.
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