MSU Founding Vice Chancellor Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe Dies, Declared National Hero
Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe, the founding Vice Chancellor of Midlands State University (MSU), has died at the age of 81. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared him a national hero.
Prof Bhebhe was a highly respected academic who received numerous awards and honours for his contributions to the field of history. He served as the Vice Chancellor of MSU from 1999 to 2014 and played a crucial role in its growth and development into a diverse institution. President Mnangagwa, along with the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda and national heroes Richard Hove and Cephas Msipa, were part of the committee that established MSU.
Prof Bhebhe was actively involved in various academic and professional associations and authored several books and articles on Zimbabwean and African history. The president responded to the news of Bhebhe’s death:
The news of the passing on of Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe today left me 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.
“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. Today, thanks to the late Professor Bhebhe, MSU is right in the forefront of transforming higher education into a catalyst for National Development, by generating durably-tested solutions in line with our Vision 2030. 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.
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President Mnangagwa said Professor Bhebhe’s research projects and publications helped redefine and rebuild the nation’s collective identity. He specifically mentioned Professor Bhebhe’s leadership in compiling the Zimbabwean chapter on the history of the African Liberation Struggle, which is considered an essential read for citizens of the continent. The President also acknowledged Professor Bhebhe’s research on national icons such as Benjamin Burombo and the late Dr Simon V Muzenda, as well as his work on the Ndebele State and the role of the Presbyterian Mission in the Midlands Province during colonial times. President Mnangagwa expressed his condolences to the Bhebhe family and the nation, and announced that Professor Bhebhe would be conferred with national hero status.
