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Zimbabwean Ambassador to China Mr Paul Chikawa

John Manzongo in Beijing, China
Zimbabwean students in Chinese universities are a hard working breed of academics, a senior Chinese academic has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Africa-China Reporting Tour being undertaken by five African journalists, Communication University of China Deputy Dean in the faculty of Journalism and Communication, Professor Zhang Yanqui said Zimbabwean students were a cut above the rest.

“Zimbabwean students are different from other students from Africa,” Prof Zhang. “They think a lot about the best future of their country and their contribution to improve their country, especially in the economic and political sector.

“They lead in class discussions and their research papers show depth and great intellectual capacity. I mostly admire their politeness, willingness to learn new things and their kind hearts as they are always helping other African students who struggle with their research papers, mainly because of their good command of the English language.”

Prof Zhang, who is also director of Africa Communication Research Centre, has so far supervised more than five Zimbabwean students at Masters and PhD level.

Prof Zhang applauded the Government of Zimbabwe’s selection criteria for students sent abroad and spoke highly of Squadron Leader Simon Matingwina from the Airforce of Zimbabwe whom she supervised at Masters degree level and who is now studying for his PhD at the same university.

“Simon has really shown us another side of Zimbabwe,” said Prof Zhang.

“He respects everyone, including junior students and does not require close supervision on his research as compared to other students.

“I jointly published a paper with him on constructive journalism and the way we conducted the research left me convinced that Zimbabwean students are hard working.”

Zimbabwean ambassador to China Mr Paul Chikawa said the embassy was impressed by the comments it continued to receive from various Chinese universities about the conduct and performance of Zimbabwean students on scholarships and self paying ones.

“Our First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe studied here as you are aware and it is like she left a legacy of hard work, good behaviour and kind heart among Zimbabwean students,” he said.

“Zimbabwe boast of academic achievers in the likes of Vimbai Kajese who became the first black African to anchor news at CCTV.”

Mr Chikawa said the whole world was now looking east economically.

He thanked President Mugabe’s visionary leadership which enabled the country to benefit from close ties with China, where the two are collaborating in various areas such as agriculture, infrastructure and education.

The workshop being attended by the five journalists is funded by Wits University of South Africa in collaboration with the Communication University of China.