The College and the Primary School
The college was under the headmastership of Peter Holmes Canham, whilst the Bernard Mizeki Primary School was under the headmastership of Mr. G.F. Coney. Canham headed Bernard Mizeki College for 4 years and was succeeded by Reverend R. Glazebrook. The two schools (the college for secondary education, the school for primary) were under the same Board of Governors. The schools were heavily aided by the Ministry of African Education of Southern Rhodesia Government. Planned expansion was slowed down for a time by the lack of financial Support, but by 1963 the number of pupils reached 180 in the College and 140 in the school. Boys who had passed through the primary school would automatically qualify to attend the college. Under the headmastership of Mr. P. Nheweyembwa the college has embarked on a number of developmental projects thus the College was awarded the Secretary’s Bell Merit Award for Best School in Mashonaland East for 2014.[14]
School Uniform
The school uniform has categories whereby there is the Number 1 uniform primarily worn when traveling or when there is a special function at the college this is made up of a charcoal grey trousers white shirt, a peach blazer with an embroidered school badge on the left breast pocket and a maroon school tie embroidered with the schools badge as well. During day-to-day routines at the college upper sixth and lower sixth formers wear charcoal grey trousers a blue shirt and a tie denoting their area of study. Form ones to form fours wear charcoal grey shorts and shirts with the school tie. Juniors are only allowed to wear trousers in the winter that is the second school term of the year.
Motto and school badge
The college’s motto is in Latin: Liberavi animum meum, lit. ‘I have liberated my mind’ and means “I have liberated my mind”.
The school badge was designed by a Mr Watambwa who was one of the artisans involved in the construction of the college in 1960. The badge depicts a shield with a cross on it with two spears running down across at slanted angle. A martyr’s crown sits atop the cross. The college’s motto is printed on a ribbon below the shield.
Leadership
The role of school captain has been entrenched in the school culture. In the foundation years the school captain was elected by the students and in those days he was referred to as the President. He headed the Senate made up of the prefects body who represented their constituencies which were their hostels and other areas within the school which needed student leaders. The first school captain was in fact Lovemore Manata however he left the school in 1962 and the second to be elected was Jackson Kawonza who is on the Roll of Honours in the College dining Hall as first school captain instead of Lovemore Manata.
The four hostels in the School are headed by a Head of Hostel followed by his Vice then a Senior prefect and a Junior prefect. These prefects are normally selected by the residents of the hostel though the administration and staff at times can have the final say in the selection. In the mid nineties there were cases were prefects were chosen from one hostel and exported to another. This caused tensions especially with those hopeful would be prefects who would have been denied the opportunity to land the leadership roles in their own hostels. Some students went on to speculate that this was being done to give the leading sports men leadership roles while denying some students with more obvious leadership qualities for these posts.
The role of Sports Captain was created in 1997 with the aim of giving the students an opportunity to manage their own sports affairs and also to lobby the school administration for introduction of more sports. In some cases the Sports captain acted as the team manager when ever school teams attended sports tournaments in other schools and around the country. The first sports captain to be elected was the now late Hilton Mahlahliwane.
Academic
The college aims to provide an academic curriculum that provides pupils with a broad-based educational experience. Introduction of more specialised subjects has taken place in the last few years the options available enable pupils to take a combination of academic or commercial or practical subjects.[15] In the 2014 academic year Bernard Mizeki College was ranked 53rd nationally and 7th in Mashonaland East Province attaining a pass rate of 96.97% with a candidature of 33 boys for Advanced Level studies.[16] In the same year the college attained an 86.11% pass rate with 71 boys having sat for the ZIMSEC Ordinary Level examinations and was ranked 29th nationally.[18] These results sparked an outcry among parents and the former students who demanded the school to improve its performance in public examinations.
Sports
The college was the only African school allowed to play cricket, rugby, hockey, Tennis, Softball, and golf before the independence of Zimbabwe; this posed a serious challenge as the teams could only play a few matches for these sports per season with other independent schools, which were quite few, while government schools for Africans did not have the privilege to play such sports. Because of the lack of sufficient competition some of the sports were dropped in favour of Soccer, Basketball and Volleyball.
Bernard Mizeki College excels in the area of sports and has performed well in the NASH Under 20 Coca-Cola Soccer tournaments in 1995, 1996 and 1999 coming losing in the finals twice in 1995 and 1999 and lost in the semi final in 1996. The College won the Dunlop Under 16 Soccer Tournament in 1994 and hopes to repeat this feat having qualified for the 2015 under 16 Copa Coca-Cola tournament in Bulawayo representing Mashonaland East. In 1997 the college also represented Mashonaland East at the Under 20 Peter Ndlovu Tournament. The rugby team has also done well at the COTTCO Rugby Festival and improved their play over the years.
In recent years the college has introduced its own Rugby Tournament held once every year in June on the Saturday nearest to Bernard Mizeki Day. The college has managed to win it for the last four years. The school is looking to introduce more similar tournaments for cricket and hockey. Basketball hosts its tournament in the second term of the year known as The Flames Basketball Tournament while the Volleyball tournament is held in the third term.
The old hockey field and cricket field were constructed under the headmastership of father Andrew Hunt. it is during his time that the sports on offer were expanded. The fields were cleared using a scrapper which was a farm implement for the estate. Currently the school has embarked on constructing a new set of sports field on the eastern side of the school from the basketball courts going down all the way to Masemola Hostel.
Cultural
The college in its founding years participated in quite a number of cultural events. The school choir was frequently invited to sing some hymns at the Harare Cathedral every term. With the help of staff members parents and other well wishers there would be an annual school play, unfortunately these have fallen away with the frequent change in headmasters over the last half century headmasters sadly come with their own priorities because of lack of strong governance
The school used to stage the Bernard Mizeki Play every year at the Bernard Mizeki Shrine on the eve of Bernard Mizeki Day was observed
Recent Challenges
In November 2015 the cabinet adopted a civil services report which recommended the withdrawal of funding for teacher salaries employed at private schools[31] due to the current Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. The government grant was used to pay salaries for seventeen teachers stationed at Bernard Mizeki College. The government argued that teachers at private schools alone gobbled about $70 million United States dollars in salaries and allowances.[32] This move has forced the college to engage parents on how best to reach an agreement on this issue. The agreements have to be presented to the ministry of education. The affected teachers last received their salaries from government Salaries Services Bureau in July 2016
Notable alumni.