The Zimbabwean anti-corruption Investigators are probing the circumstances surrounding the controversial awarding of a doctorate to former first lady Grace Mugabe.
Grace is said to have received the doctorate from University of Zimbabwe in 2014 while her husband Robert Mugabe was the chancellor of the university.
It has been established that Grace did not study or undertaken a research to earn the doctorate and that she had been handed her diploma just months after enrolling.
PhDs typically require several years of full-time research and writing.
Her dissertation has never been made public, according to local media, breaking with the established policy of most Zimbabwean public universities to publish doctoral students’ theses.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported in 2014 that Grace’s dissertation was on the theme of “changing social structure (and) the functions of the family” and that she undertook research on Zimbabwean children’s homes.
Grace was personally capped by her husband Mugabe, who was also the chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe, and praised by other government officials who defended the controversial degree award.
