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Kamba looked for positive solutions
Joram Nyathi, The Independent (Zimbabwe)
May 25, 2007

PROFESSOR Walter Kamba died on May 18. It was exactly a month from Zimbabwe's Independence anniversary celebrations on April 18, a day he helped so much to bring to fruition at Lancaster House with his legal acumen, but which he was not able to attend this year due to ill-health.

Having made his contribution to the deliberations which gave birth to Zimbabwe, Kamba was rewarded with the University of Zimbabwe vice-chancellorship in 1980 and quietly left politics to politicians - and what a fine mess they have made of those hopes and aspirations!

I first came face to face with Professor Kamba as a first year student at the UZ in March 1983. He addressed us in front of the Library in his ringing voice, telling us: "You are now adults. You have come to learn. There is no headmaster and you will be your own supervisor." Anyway, words to that effect.

We listened, mesmerised as we had just come from high school and were "fortunate" to be admitted to this awesome institution to further our education. Coming from far flung rural settings, everything looked majestic, from the imposing library building itself to the lecture theatres and halls of residence. Food was aplenty and a matter of choice.

It was during Kamba's tenure that enrolment spiralled from hundreds to four digits.

We set about our work. Lecturers were revered then. Students competed to be the highest in class. I think there was only one strike action in my first three years there, during which I won two prizes. There was plenty of tribal politics but things were kept under control. Politicians competed to come and address students on what was going on in the country. There was a turf war on campus between Zanu and PF-Zapu. Matabeleland and the Midlands were on fire and drenched in blood.

Edgar Tekere was one of the politicians whose lectures I attended because of his characteristic fiery speeches. He declared before a mixture of terrified and ululating students that the "problem in Matabeleland needs a military solution". That is all I remember. I was sure the tales I was hearing from relatives in Bulawayo were true and part of government policy. It was the last time I attended those poisonous and intoxicating lectures.

I still don't know whether the 1987 deal between Zanu PF and PF-Zapu was a political or military one. But looking at the way the opposition and the ruling party relate, I can say we haven't made a paradigm shift in how we handle political differences.

Still, the university remained a place of relative peace if you kept out of active politics, and Kamba managed fairly well.

Things have since changed. Kamba did not just "retire" but left the University of Zimbabwe a bitter man. He watched with disgust as politicians corrupted and compromised the quality of education. I still recall when he left in 1990, protesting against "too many unprofessional fingers interfering" in university affairs. He felt what was happening impaired the integrity of the university and that there was no more "free inquiry" by students, something which universities the world over seek to foster.

From there Kamba was involved in a lot of "consultancy" work in and out of the country. With his keen legal mind, he must have watched in despair as the country slipped into lawlessness and the University of Zimbabwe was reduced to a kindergarten where the riot police have become frequent visitors, student halls have no windowpanes, ablutions don't work, girls engage in prostitution to pay fees and to buy food and the Library has no books.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura recently told a parliamentary portfolio committee that the university had less than half the required lecturers. There were around 600 lecturers when the university needs about 1 200, he said. The rest have left the country for the proverbial greener pastures while those still holed up in there have been on strike for longer than they have been in the lecture rooms.

Professor Nyagura fell short of saying some faculties had shut down. This is not something Kamba would have been proud of as he contemplated his legacy in the past few weeks - that all his efforts in transforming the University of Zimbabwe from a small colonial institution to a national centre of learning had collapsed under a black government. Ugandans were quick to forgive Idi Amin for the ruin of Makerere University because he was regarded as a buffoon.

More than that, Kamba would have been bitter that his contribution to the rule of law and the integrity of the judiciary is appreciated more in a foreign country - Namibia - than in his land of birth. To crown the insult, it is possible that Kamba may not have dreamt of a burial at the Heroes Acre, but it must be galling that a foreigner he met only in the 1980s found the time to write his obituary out of all the Zimbabweans whose lives he touched and possibly transformed.

To that foreigner belongs the last word. Swedish ambassador Sten Rylander said of Kamba: "He was not one of those who looked back or who remained in the past. His main concern was not that Zimbabwe would be a colony again. He had foresight; he always looked forward - for constructive solutions and initiatives that could break the negative spiral and put Zimbabwe on a more positive path."

May his soul rest in peace.

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