The story had inaccuracies concerning the staff situation at Great Zimbabwe University that we wish corrected for the mutual benefit of the university’s stakeholders and the readers of your newspaper. According to the story, “Great Zimbabwe University is a relatively small institution with 27 posts which explains why there are low vacancy levels.”
On the contrary whilst it is still a growing institution, Great Zimbabwe University has a staff complement of 623 with 501 posts filled and 122 vacancies –– a vacancy rate of 19,58%.
Of the total staff complement, academic staff account for 274 posts of which 77 are vacant –– a vacancy rate of 28,10%. There is a 12,89% vacancy rate among the non-academic staff.
Whilst efforts are continuously being made to fill vacant posts, the recruitment and retention of staff remains a major challenge to the Great Zimbabwe University as it is with all other state-owned education institutions in the country due to relatively uncompetitive salaries and other conditions of service.
The above statistics are summarised in the tables on right:
Anderson Chipatiso,
Great Zimbabwe University Information Officer.