HARARE – Zimbabwean academic Maud Chifamba, who rose to fame as Africa’s youngest university student in 2012, has spoken out against the alleged abuse of power by scholarship program officials following rape allegations against Old Mutual manager Musa Nyasha Dube Manyika.
Chifamba, who earned her place at the University of Zimbabwe to study accounting at just 14 years old, shared her thoughts in a passionate Facebook post, highlighting the plight of vulnerable students who depend on scholarships. Her degree was funded by a US$9,933 scholarship from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Chairman’s Charity Fund.
Reacting to the allegations, Chifamba expressed anger at the exploitation of students, particularly young women.
“An issue like this infuriates me; and many girls out there go through this. As a girl who received a scholarship when I was quite young, I know so many people who were victims, and the perpetrators vachizikanwa,” she wrote.
She further emphasized the difficulties victims face in coming forward, citing fear of losing scholarships or facing societal judgment.
“The comments under posts like these are the reasons no one speaks out; on top of the threats of the withdrawal of the scholarship and the drama surrounding it!”
Chifamba set a hypothetical scenario to illustrate the power imbalance. She described a situation where a student from a financially struggling family, reliant on a scholarship, is pressured into compliance by someone with authority over the scholarship.
“Now, let me set the scene (hypothetically, for these allegations) for you. Unenge uriwe wekutanga kutopinda mu Harare kumba kwenyu, and the first one to go to university. Kumba kwenyu hakutorina mari yema basics, let alone ~$1,000 per semester inodiwa ku UZ. But then unogona chikoro, so a company like Old Mutual comes and says we will pay for you. Your family praises God and the heavens. Even iwewe, the gratitude you feel, noone really knows unless they were once stranded. Imagine with my scholarship; I used to save and send home mari yerent, kutoita family’s breadwinner.
“Now Old Mutual is not a building, its made up of people, in this case, the scholarship committee. One of the people in the scholarship committee sends you a message, “huya ku event yakati yakati for this”. This is in your 3rd month at University, urimu part 1: semester 1. So You go. And he forces himself on you. And he says if you tell, noone will believe you and the committee will withdraw that scholarship. You accept your cross and keep it moving. When you go ku attachment at same company, he does it again. 2 Questions: 1. Would you report it…2. Was there consent?” she argued.
While stressing that consent cannot exist in such imbalanced dynamics, Chifamba called the alleged behavior “DESPICABLE and very SHAMEFUL.” She also condemned the tendency to doubt victims while rallying for the presumption of innocence for the accused.
“Why are you not giving the girl the benefit of the doubt?” she asked. “It’s not just Old Mutual Limited scholarship, kuiswa pa list re cadet fellowship chairo, presidential scholarship and a lot of these scholarships; I have heard horror stories – girls being abused by people who are supposed to be helping them. It is Shameful. Most of the times, its not once off, people know vanhu that engage in this behavior but still let them sit in positions where they will continue or take advantage of more people. It is really shameful!”
Chifamba expressed gratitude for her own guardians during her studies, noting that their protection shielded her from similar experiences. “Professor Nyagura and CG Pasi made sure everyone knew I was their child; and no one tried anything like this foolishness,” she wrote.
She concluded by urging society to hold abusers accountable and ensure men with “this kind of disgusting behavior” stay away from positions that expose them to vulnerable people. Kukurigo
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