The Vice-Chancellors Office

Under his leadership, the University completed and commissioned the country’s second Innovation Hub in November 2019. The Innovation Hub houses the Applied Genetics Testing Centre (AGTC), which is the country’s centre of excellence in DNA testing for both human and animal. The Hub has also incubated a number of projects that have grown into start-up businesses. At the height of the global Covid-19, Prof Dlodlo successfully led NUST in the fight against the pandemic. Using equipment from the AGTC, Prof Dlodlo deployed a team of NUST experts to set up the country’s second PCR Testing Centre at the National TB Reference Laboratory at Mpilo Central Hospital from April to December 2020. The centre serviced five provinces of Bulawayo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Midlands. Prof Dlodlo also led another team of experts in the manufacture of sanitiser, disinfectants and face masks, as part of the University’s contribution in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

For this achievement, NUST received the Jairos Jiri Humanitarian Award in 2021 from the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency, Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, for its outstanding work in the practicalisation of the Heritage-based Education 5.0 in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. The AGTC has also successfully solved national problems such as the identification of the victims of the 2019 Cyclone Idai and other national disasters.  His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa, awarded the AGTC a Medal of Meritorious Service Commendation Award in 2021.

Prof Dlodlo is leading NUST in setting up industries on campus by constructing eight (8) Factory Shells, which will accommodate honey processing, fruit jam manufacturing, and plastic mould making, among other goods and services under the University’s Bulawayo Technology Centre. With support from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation and Technology Development, Prof Dlodlo has seen the University adopting a new model of construction where NUST is now the main contractor. Using the new model, the University is completing infrastructural projects such as the Prof Phinias-Mogorosi Makhurane Technovation Centre that have been on a standstill for over a decade. Under the leadership of Prof Dlodlo, NUST has made significant steps towards achieving its vision of being a world-class University. It has been given a new facelift through commissioning a state-of-the-art gatehouse and landscaping of the Central Plaza. NUST is also now a leader in architectural design and construction with a number of national projects under its portfolio including the Chivhu Centre for Education Innovation Research and Development; Plumtree and Binga Polytechnics; Hwange College of Education; Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency, and the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) headquarters.

The University continues to grow under his leadership through reviewing existing curricular, introducing new Faculties and programmes. Since his appointment, two (2) new Faculties of Environmental Science and Agricultural Science and Technology and several departments have been introduced. NUST now has nine (9) faculties of Applied Science, Engineering, Medicine, Environmental Science, Agricultural Science and Technology, The Built Environment, Science and Technology Education, Communication and Information Science and Business and Economics Sciences, an Institute of Development Sciences and a Graduate School of Business Sciences, which is now a member of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). NUST has strengthened its role of “leading in human capital development for industrial and socio-economic transformation, with a bias towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) based solutions”. The University has increased its enrolment in STEM programmes from 48% in 2016 to 66% in 2023.

Prof Dlodlo is leading NUST in transforming the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Ekusileni Hospital into a specialist quinary hospital. When fully operational, J.M.N. Ekusileni Hospital will provide specialist medical services and promote medical tourism.

Before this appointment, Prof Dlodlo was working as an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, and continues to serve in an Emeritus capacity in the Electrical Engineering Department of UCT, co-supervising PhD Students at the Institution. He joined UCT as an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department in January 2005. He was the inaugural Programme Convener of the Master of Engineering Degree Programme with a specialisation in Telecommunications, in the Electrical Engineering department at UCT. Prof Dlodlo also served as Assistant Dean for Internationalisation with an Afropolitan Agenda at UCT in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (EBE), from January 2011 to December 2014. Prof Dlodlo is not new to NUST. He was previously employed by NUST between May 1992 and December 2004, during which period he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Technology (FIT) from May 2002 for a two-year term. He joined NUST as a Lecturer, in 1992 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronic Engineering within FIT, in 2000. He also chaired the same Department. Prior to that, Prof Dlodlo also served as a Principal Lecturer in Telecommunications, Lecturer-in-Charge of Heavy Current Technicians and eventually Head of the Electrical Craft Department at Bulawayo Polytechnic from 1983 to 1992.

Prof Dlodlo is an extensively published scholar and researcher in the Telecommunications and Wireless Communication Systems, having served in several Technical, Steering, and Organising Committees of distinguished and international conferences and workshops. He is active in the Steering Committee of the Public Service Academy (PSA), and the Strategic Leadership Association for Zimbabwe Engineering Iron & Steel Industry (SLAZEISI).

At the University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa, he is an Emeritus Associate Professor in telecommunications in the Electrical Engineering Department. His research interests are in wireless communication systems and applications. An emeritus member of the Communications Research Group (CRG) in the Telkom Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Broadband Networks and Applications he co-supervises some PhD students whenever invited to do so. He has produced at least (11) eleven well published PhDs, more than (30) thirty Masters, and numerous other Engineering degreed and Technical graduates both in Zimbabwe and South Africa, who have gone on to achieve Professorships, Directorships and Top-Level Management positions in several reputed institutions, companies and organizations. The research has led to over a hundred international refereed publications and international IP registrations.

In my time at UCT, Prof. Dlodlo served as Assistant Dean for Internationalization and Programme Convener for the Master of Engineering (Telecommunications) degree program. He has also designed curricula, taught, consulted, researched, and headed departments and faculties at NUST as well as the Bulawayo Polytechnic for over twenty-one years. In 2003 he became a Fulbright Senior African Scholar at Virginia Tech in America, studying Learning and Information Technology Initiatives for academic leadership in research, learning, and fundraising. For detailed information:

Emeritus Associate Professor Mqhele Dlodlo | Department of Electrical Engineering (uct.ac.za)

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2364-2957