….Dexter Nduna torches another academic storm
By Brighton Chiseva
HARARE – Barely two months after sparking controversy by attending a graduation ceremony at the University Of Zimbabwe (UZ) despite failing some modules, former Zanu PF Member of Parliament (MP) Dexter Nduna has allegedly been caught cheating in an exam, casting further doubt on his academic integrity.
Nduna who is currently doing a National Certificate in civil engineering course at Harare Polytechnic was reportedly caught cheating in an engineering site administration module on November 26, 2024.
Harare Poly Public Relations Officer Admire Masuku could neither confirm nor deny the incident initially saying he was not aware and would verify and later referred comments to examination board HEXCO saying it was the one in charge of the examinations not the college.
“I will have to check with the respective department and authorities. I have no clue. Examinations are the province of HEXCO. We don’t comment on such issues as an institution,” said Masuku.
Efforts to get a comment from Nduna were futile as he was not reachable on his mobile phone which kept indicating it was engaged several times and later went to voicemail.
However, sources within the college said the invigilator confiscated the phone he was using and the college had since started investigations and disciplinary action will be taken.
“He was caught using his cellphone with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and they took away his gadget. The matter is under investigations and disciplinary action will be taken,” said the source.
Nduna who serves as the resource mobilization and revenue generation chairperson in the ZANU PF central committee is not new to controversy as he reportedly failed several modules while doing a law degree with UZ and because of that he could not graduate.
He allegedly applied for remarking and when he discovered that he was not on the graduating class, he allegedly paid graduation fee and went on to the graduation ceremony wearing a gown but literally did not graduate since he had no certificate or transcript.
In October he was arrested on fraud charges after a company he allegedly owned called Team Chapter went on to collect parking fees in Chegutu with claims also that the company was taking over in Harare.
In 2018 Nduna lost to then MDC Alliance party candidate but was declared winner after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said they made a mistake by declaring him winner and the winner failed to appeal within the stipulated time frame.
